a noiseless patient spider poem

A Noiseless Patient Spider | Poem Explanation | Walt Whitman

About Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman (1819-1892), son of a carpenter from Brooklyn, then in the rural countryside, worked throughout his life as carpenter, clerk, newspaperman and editor. The first major poet of the American soil, Whitman never lived far from poverty. In the first edition of Leaves of Grass in 1855, Whitman declared, "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem. Though a poet of democracy who celebrates the brotherhood of man, Whitman seems to emphasise the individual at the expense of society throwing off all conventions. In celebrating One's-Self 1 Sing, he sang of Life in passion, pulse and power' to conclude, "The Modern Man I sing As a defender of central American idealism, he ushered in a new age as he sang in his symbolic role as a poet of humanity, communicating with man, nature and the universe. His use of rhythm as a fluid instrument of verse demonstrated a range of possibilities beyond that of conventional metre. Associating themes and melodies with great freedom and suggestiveness, he shaped his poems as symphonies. An ardent admirer of Whitman's free verse, DH Lawrence wrote that Whitman was, 'Ahead of all poets, pioneering into the wildness of empowered life. Beyond him, none.'

A Noiseless Patient Spider, first published in 1862 in Whitman's Whispers of Heavenly Death, was later included in the 1892 edition of Leaves of Grass. This poem, one of the shortest by Whitman, is typical of the poet. The theme is revealed only through the juxtaposition of similarities between a noiseless patient spider and the soul of the poet. The impact of oriental philosophy or Emerson's concept of the 'over soul' is perceptible in the short lyric, which emanates from Whitman's own personality. The spider and the soul are analogous to the poet who thinks, feels, sees, invents, executes and imitates, moving from the inner to the outer world. Speaking of man's wisdom, Whitman says in the 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass, 'Only the soul is of itself, ... all else has reference to what ensues. All that a person does or thinks is of consequence.' The poem thus speaks about human creativity. Though Whitman's form is the usual heavily accented free verse there seems hardly a word that could be changed or omitted. The poem certainly shows not only Whitman at his best, but also Whitman's poetic method at its best.

'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.