A Noiseless Patient Spider | Poem Explanation | Walt Whitman
'A Noiseless Patient Spider' Poem
A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it 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.
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.
Glossary
Line 2. promontory headland, high mountain projection
Line 3. to explore to search or examine
Line 4. filament slender, thread-like fibre
Line 8. musing meditating, contemplating
Line 9. ductile easily led, yielding, capable of being drawn out into threads
Line 9. anchor rest or support giving stability
Line 11. gossamer fine flimsy spider-threads that float in the air
Explanatory Notes
Stanza 1. Apparently, the two descriptive stanzas tell us about the spider and the poet's soul; the first is visible, the second invisible. The poet marked a noiseless patient spider standing isolated on a little promontory. The three adjectives - noiseless, patient, isolated emphasise its total seclusion and loneliness. After probing into the vacant, vast surrounding, which in a way was threatening, the spider started weaving its web, in an attempt to overpower the surroundings. It was the vacancy around that triggered the spider's creativity, enabling it to lead a meaningful existence. The slow but tenacious and tireless launching forth brought a sense of fulfilment to it.
Stanza 2. In the second stanza, the poet addresses his soul and finds that it is also secluded, cut off, in 'measureless oceans of space' like the spider. What the soul tries to do ceaselessly is to meditate and risk correcting the within, with the spheres outside. These attempts continue until the soul forms a bridge, like the spider's attempts to launch forth filaments from within, as a bridge with the macrocosm. In other words, the basic creative principle in man is the soul. It is the soul that oozes forth the best in man. The image of the spider used here is without a reference to the hunter- hunted relationship. The soul is creative in that it seeks to establish a link with the world surrounding man. The visual quality of the image of the spider used to represent human creativity, makes the poem effective.
Though the poem is written in free verse it has a well-knit form. The lines of the stanzas bring out the spider-soul comparison with the use of parallelism in words and phrases. Repetition is creative, not mechanical. The slow oozing out of the spider's gossamer threads is suggested by the repetition of the word 'filament'. This is also applied to the soul, it is suggested through the repetition of gerund-like words: musing, venturing, throwing, seeking. These words are suggested by the words 'unreeling' and 'speeding' of the first stanza. "Tirelessly' is matched by 'ceaselessly', 'isolated' by 'surrounded', 'detached.' Whereas the spider 15 marked as isolated on a little promontory (mountain image), the soul is surrounded 'in measureless oceans of space' (sea image). The spider image is created in the second stanza by words like 'the ductile anchor' and 'gossamer threads'. The sound pattern of the poem also adds to the total effect of the poem. One can find many repetitive sounds carefully used in the poem.