Walt Whitman's A Noiseless Patient Spider

In “ A Noiseless Patient Spider” a poem by Walt Whitman, the author is relating the life of a noiseless patient spider to his own life and his missing, disconnected soul. The poet may be indicating that if he were more patient with his own life, he would not be so lost and would be able to appreciate things the way he perceived this spider adoring what he does; tossing strands and building webs to travel and explore the world. Through the poem you’ll see the following topics: the search, or exploration, for importance and experience in the hugeness of the living. The adjective “noiseless” and “patient” antedate the poem’s tone of despair.

First, thing you’ll see in “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman is that is created into a short

poem, it has ten unequal lines split into two verses of five lines each. The usage of the indefinite article “a” in the title and the first line modifies this arachnid, separating it from the illustrative quantity and highlighting the respective nature of its struggles. This poem is written in the first person, which is usual of poetic poetry; less common, nevertheless, is that the narrator straightforwardly speaks and communicates with his own soul, which appears in the second stanza. “A Noiseless Patient Spider” starts with a depiction of a common and comparatively unimportant incident: A spider, all lonely on a little cape, silently and diligently tosses out web-threads from its spinnerets into an vast, immeasurable emptiness that is all it can see; rapidly, tirelessly, endlessly, it tries to scrutinize and define this significant, tangible unknown that fixes it.
In the first verse, the narrator describes that he is analyzing a spider so carefully-“A noiseless patient spider, / I mark’d where on a little promontory its stood isolated, /Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, /It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, / Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them”(1-5).

Somewhat than developing a casual look, the speaker is closely observing this spider, taking footnote precisely what it is doing. The whirling of the web is so astonishing that the speaker nearly gets lost in just watching it. Thus the speaker not only is accurately scrutiny a web being created, but without recognizing is figuratively getting “caught in a web” of thought and admiration. As is nearly always the illustration with Whitman, this poem is created in free verse. Which means that it doesn’t rhyme, and there’s no set rhythm or meter. Slant rhymes are families of words that are not “full rhymes (like “cat”-“hat”) although have endings that nearly rhyme in sound. Alike noiseless and patient- hear the “ent” sound? Also the repeat has a specific wave to it. Think of what a spider does. A spider flings out its filament, seeming never-ending and so of course there will be repetition here as the speaker attempts to create a rhythm similar to a spider sitting and throwing its thread. The main question is, if this doesn’t rhyme or use meter, why is it a poem? Is it just a series of sentences broken up into shorter lines? Now, there

are elements here that fit our meaning of poetic style. Repetition is a main one. Whitman gives repetitions, which attracts attention to their sounds. This kind of poetry was pretty arguable at the time, and for several people, it still is.
“A Noiseless Patient Spider” was more likely written during a time of huge political, cultural, and social change, which might have been the reason Whitman, wrote the poem. The poem may purely be a description of Whitman’s journey so far throughout his life and his unsuccessful attempt to discover the significance and purpose of life. The precise part of the poem which talks about the spider tirelessly and continually unreeling the web and speeding up the process could be symbolic of the ever developing and changing world that Whitman lived in, which caused the speaker to have to adapt with the changes and new challenges that came about to find spiritual enlightenment.
More importantly, the narrator is learning from this spider.

The speaker exactly where the spider stands and pays attention to its isolation. Whitman helps us out here by essentially using the word “isolated”. Remember how that spider "stood isolated" in line 2? The writer creates a huge deal about how the soul is also cut-off from other substances and the external world. A reaction of isolation might be the major emotional component of this poem. In addition, the speaker writes how the spider accomplished exploration, and the speaker is almost jealous, wondering how he can imitate it. All that the speaker can do is jot down: “how to explore the vacant vast surrounding” that the spider is so capable of. The theme "Exploration" is easy to point out, since the spider and the soul together explore. This helps us to understand the more positive pieces of the poem. There is a encouraging note here, remarkably at the end. Eventually the spider will begin his web, and the soul will make connection with something throughout that vast ocean. Exploration is thrilling, full of guarantee and hopefulness – although it can also be dreary, terrifying, and

risky.
In the second verse, the speaker talks to his own soul by going into a mind-state where he relates the spider interweaving a web to the complex weaving of his soul: “And you O my soul where you stand,/Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,/ Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,/ Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,/ Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul” (6-10). If you can see, that the spider “stood” steady while the speakers soul can only “stand”. This is an image of how the spider is imbedded in its determination; it sees what its life is about (spinning filament), which is why the narrator grieves for his own soul (which can only stand because it is so uncertain, thus it is “disconnected”).
Another significant note is that the spider is as the title states: “noiseless” and “patient.” Meanwhile, the speakers soul cannot lie still or feel at peace, it is “constantly musing” and “tossing” searching for answers. In addition, the speaker describes that his soul is nearly literally caught in the spider’s web, since it is “surrounded.” Furthermore, the speaker already explicated how unlimited the spiders filament was, which is why the speakers soul is not just trapped, but bound in both “measureless ocean of space” as well as a “measureless” amount of webbing.
Ultimately the speaker perceives his soul and the spider as related. While the spider constructs its web as a bridge” that must be “form’d” until it can hold. The poems last line is also meaningful of the spider, elucidating the “gossamer threads”(webbing) that the soul must “fling” and hope it catches.
Overall, this is an admirable piece. While the speaker’s soul shares resemblances with the spider, the spider is ultimately the stronger thing in this poem. Meanwhile, the speaker can only sit back and watch as he hopes that his soul will someday be able to spin its own “filament” and truly branch out into the world.