A Noiseless Patient Spider Analysis

The poet uses personification by describing the nettles with the human quality of being ‘fierce’. This makes them seem like the enemy’s army which has been destroyed by the father. The poet ends the stanza using an enjambment to possibly show the continued struggles in his son’s life, leading the readers to connect emotionally to the father’s devotion to his son’s happiness.

Whitman's poetic soul, like the spider, stands isolated at the center of all things. If it is to take on meaning, it must... come to a realization of itself... The poet then, like the spider is complete in himself-a seer and a "kosmos" - constantly "musing, venturing, throwing, seeking" in an effort to create his own order by forming a union with the whole (Eckley 20).

George Saunders has thrilled minds and captivated hearts in many of his short stories since the start of his career. However, this particular short story from Saunders, entitled “Escape from Spiderhead,” tells the story of a young man getting pushed to his limits; in a twisted and beautifully sad way. Saunders illustrates how one person can hold on to his humanity in an increasingly oppressive environment. By paying close attention to the dialog, themes, and characters of this story, you will begin to see clear indication that Abnesti is creating a brutal and demented environment for Jeff.

Walt Whitman’s A Noiseless Patient Spider was written with the comparison of a striving human soul to a spider. The way that he trying to make the comparison is by simply trying to connect the spider to the human soul as the human soul is connected to the world. Whitman uses figurative language throughout his piece, such as personification. The first stanza is focused on the spider making a web, whereas the second stanza is focused on the attempt to connect the spider to the human soul and the rest of the world.

In the poem there is also an idea of man verses nature, this relates to the survival of the fittest. John Foulcher shows this through the use of first person point of view. For example in the second stanza “Then above me the sound drops” this again possesses sensory imagery creating a deeper human aura throughout the poem. Foulcher further uses a human aura to build a sense of natural imagery for example in the last stanza : “I pick up these twigs and leave them” adding closure

The poem contains two stanzas with two different settings. One might not know much about the first stanza; however, in the second one the speaker is next to an ocean, perhaps, at a beach. So, while the first stanza symbolizes the mindset of the speaker, the inner dream, the second stanza symbolizes the outer dream which is what we see; life. The poem

In the poem A Noiseless Patient Spider, it begins by giving us a description of a common, little spider going throughout its life. A spider, on a rock, where it sat isolated, quietly as it casts out its web from in it's spinnerets into an emptiness by trying to examine the significant unknown that holds it. The speaker gives us some deep thoughts as we read through it, while making a connection between the actual life of the spider and with our own lives. As well as the speaker comparing it to his own lost life, he portrays to us that perhaps if he were to be more patient with his life that maybe he could enjoy how the spider goes about it's life and he wouldn't be so lost.

The first stanza explains how the cunning spider “stood isolated” and to “explore the vacant, vast surroundings” it “launched” thread after thread “out of itself” thus creating a sturdy web. This then flows smoothly into the description of his soul, which acts in a very similar manner. At first, it too seems isolated. Whitman writes “O my Soul, where you stand” and “surrounded, in measureless oceans of space,” which connects to the how the spider “stood isolated.” This wording, however, might take on a new meaning to describe how his soul has an endless number of opportunities, even though it also seems as lonely as the spider. In the third line, “Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,” Whitman illustrates how his soul also launches its own webbing, determined to connect itself with its surroundings. These may be relationships with others or finding a place to call home - anything that will create “the bridge [it] will need” or connections that will “anchor” it to its environment. Whitman helps readers understand the actions and nature of an intangible soul by relating it to a small and tangible

The tone of the two poems are rather stark in their differences. Whitman’s poem, is more optimistic, and this can be seen here, “Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them” (8-9). This excerpt is about the spider and the soul; it is describing the nature of both. The words themselves have lighter, happier connotations to them, as musing is used to describe the act of thinking, and that is a positive thing. The excerpt goes on to describe the soul and spider (which are one in the same in the poem) as something seeking adventure, or at least willing to go searching for something, another attribute that is positive. In general, the poem is observing the spider and what it is doing, with some commentary on the nature of the soul. This is somewhat

The Swincar Spider is a crazy electric car that looks like something straight out of Bioshock. It’s got this weird steam-punk vibe that throws me back to memories of trying to make an escape after just foiling the plans of some quasi-dystopian government. Of course, this is real life, so fortunately nothing like that is happening. At least not yet.

In “A Noiseless, Patient Spider,” Walt Whitman suggests that the Spider’s actions of desperation cause the narrator to question his own security of survival and uncertainty within his soul. In Stanza 1, the spider is isolated on a rock surrounded by water. As the narrator carefully observes the spider, he sees the spider continuously launching its filaments “tirelessly” in its “vast” surroundings. Filaments from the spider are silk that spiders strand together to assemble their webs. These thin filaments are called gossamer, and they make up their webs. The narrator knows “where [his] soul stands”, but is lacking the filaments that show his future.

Walt Whitman's poetry is relatively formless and his random patterns have a significant effect on the meaning evoked from the poems. Whitman has a constant theme of the link between nature/natural experience and humans. He expresses his emotions and opinions through his poems. Some of his poems are very personable, which makes them very easier to understand and more enjoyable to read.

Along with the use of metaphors, the form of the poem plays an important role in uncovering the views of Whitman. First and foremost, this poem was written in free verse which is a form of poetry that lacks structure. The free verse stucture of the poem is shown in the lack of form in the stanzas of the poem. Some stanzas are six lines long while others are only one, and the lines can be either concise or drawn out. The poem also lacks any apparent rhyming scheme or rhythm. Unlike Shakespearean poetry, where the foot of the poem stays the same, the lack of any apparent structure to the poem leaves the reader unable to predict what is coming next. In addition to this, at the time this poem was written, free verse was not common. In fact, Whitman may have been one of the first poets to use this form, showing that he may have been rebelling against the predominant structured form in poetry. The lack of any apparent structure guides the reader towards the conclusion that Whitman did not like structure in poetry, and can even be

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”

This is another poem that links Whitman to the Romantics. The "birth of the poet" genre was of particular importance to Wordsworth, whose massive Prelude details his artistic coming-of-age in detail. Like Wordsworth, Whitman claims to take his inspiration from nature. Where Wordsworth is inspired by a wordless feeling of awe, though, Whitman finds an opportunity to anthropomorphize, and nature gives him very specific answers to his questions about overarching concepts. Nature is a tabula rasa onto which the poet can project himself. He conquers it, inscribes it. While it may become a part of him that is always present, the fact that it does so seems to be by his permission.