Analysis Of Walt Whitman 's Poem ' A Noiseless Patient Spider '

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).

The first literary element that the poem used was personification. The way it was used because the author of the story wrote that “Proving nature’s law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet.”That can’t be possible for a plant to start walking. What this line in the poem was trying to say was that you can get through anything even when you don’t have the things that you need in order to accomplish them and get through it. The theme that this is trying to show us is courage.

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

However, the poem has fluidity despite its apparent scarcity of rhyme. After examining the alteration of syllables in each line, a pattern is revealed in this poem concerning darkness. The first nine lines alternate between 8 and 6 syllables. These lines are concerned, as any narrative is, with exposition. These lines set up darkness as an internal conflict to come. The conflict intensifies in lines 10 and 11 as we are bombarded by an explosion of 8 syllables in each line. These lines present the conflict within one's own mind at its most desperate. After this climax, the syllables in the last nine lines resolve the conflict presented. In these lines, Dickinson presents us with an archetypal figure that is faced with a conflict: the “bravest” hero. These lines present the resolution in lines that alternate between 6 and 7 syllables. Just as the syllables decrease, the falling action presents us with a final insight. This insight discusses how darkness is an insurmountable entity that, like the hero, we must face to continue “straight” through “Life” (line 20).

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

Lastly, the poet also uses hyperbole to express his poem with lines such as “dawn leaping,” “sun swells,” and “light rushing to darkness,” (Bradley, 1986, p. 749). The poet continues to use this imagery to stimulate the reader’s imagination. The poet keeps the mysterious flow moving and finally ending making the reader ask if he makes a sound that can be heard from a great distance yet not knowing for sure.

In Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” a desolate spider that vainly attempts to start a web represents loneliness. When the narrator shifts from speaking about the spider making its web to a human soul attempting to find its place in the world, he depicts the soul stranded and lying among “measureless oceans of space” (Arp 727). The spider is having trouble attaching its first fiber to a branch on the tree in order to start its web. The soul is having trouble finding a niche in the world in order to feel a sense of belonging. The isolation of the spider describes how despairing and desolate a person may feel when there are so

In conclusion, Taylor's poetical structures are customary in their fundamental purposeful anecdote, their unpredictability and progression are profoundly unique. His lines move to an unpleasant rhythm; the verbs are solid, and the symbolism incredible. The excessive different method of expression and the relationship of picture and thought planned by its strain to strike poetic flashes makes this poem a perfect example of metaphysical

poem is not merely a static, decorative creation, but that it is an act of communication between the poet and

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.”

Stafford furtively conceals the profound meaning of his poem behind a story of the narrator, who stops alongside the road to care for a deer. The genius behind poem is better understood when the superficial meaning is expressed deeply.