Symbolism In Walt Whitman's 'A Noiseless Patient Spider'

Ted Kooser’s poem, “Surviving”, can be interpreted in many different ways. At first the poem seems to be about a man who is watching a bug being attentive to its surroundings and the bug having the fear of death. Another way to interpret this poem is that death is unrelenting. Even when the speaker seems to have ceased the image of death, it finds its way back. This is prevalent because the speaker starts talking about the fear of death, then altering the tone by describing this bug he witnesses. The speaker then leaves the reader uncertain at the end of the poem. Ted Kooser reveals the uncertainty of the bugs’ near future in the last line of the poem. A careful analysis of the poem, the poem is truly about a man in his final stages of life being attentive to death and the beauty of the bug he observes.

Questions reader should ask when trying to determine symbolic meaning: “what’s the writer doing with this image, this object, this act; what possibilities are suggested by the movement of the narrative or the lyric; and most important, what does it feel like it’s doing?” (Foster 59).

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 paths taken in each person’s lifetime can associate with any factor or situation that one may come across. For example, one could come across a path that stands for tradition and the effect of traditional beliefs on a society like the one represented in “Dead Man’s Path.” Another example could be a path that stands for the power of love and the effect of unselfishness that makes one continue with life like the one represented in “A Worn Path.” An additional example could be a path that stands for overcoming doubts of beliefs as these may uphold or tear one apart like the path represented in “Young Goodman Brown.” No path is easier than another and they all hold a spectacular significance in each person’s life. Therefore, in this independent

Wherein this is the extent of the metaphor, where in this poem it is a changeable anomaly subject to the readers interpretation of taking the road less travelled and whether it be a positive (sigh of satisfaction) or negative (sigh of regret). This is all one can hope when using a metaphor relating to the readers life, that they substitute their own feelings and create their own meaning, their own attitude towards to such decisions and subsequently, such journeys.

To analyze the meaning of the poem of Mark Jarman, he does a philosophical reflection that invites his audience to think about the purpose of human beings in the life. However, to understand in a deeper lever this concept, Jarman goes beyond the mundane life purpose and makes a reflection about what is beyond death in order to know how it can affect this purpose. His thoughts are also related with the idea of the human natural curiosity and how through the stages of life it changes and humans being are discovering their purpose for this life. Therefore, Jarman shows in this “Unholy sonnet 5” how making a deep reflection about the purpose of life before fronting death and being before God's presence, one can fall into the conclusion that at the end having enjoyed this life will be what it really will be worth.

Walt Whitman’s poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” seeks to provide a brief exploration of the contrast between wisdom and knowledge. Whitman uses numerous poetic devices and syllable stresses to conclude his intended theme of the poem. Along with the structure, he implements purposeful character and setting development within the eight lines of the poem. Although short in length, this work leaves much to be discovered.

B. All the symbols throughout the paper signifies the path and journey of life but also highlights the fact that she kept on persevering.

A personal experience that I have had with symbolism was when one of my mom’s friends was having a child and were revealing the gender. What they did was they had a cake and inside was the color blue for a boy or pink for a girl. When we sliced open the cake is what pink so that means they were having a girl. This has been the experience that I have had with symbolism in real life. This ties into the many examples of symbolism in the story “Night”.

Simplicity is an integral part of the young man’s union with the axolotl. But the simple creature the man comes to know and admire could not be without its neotenous characteristics. As the salamander grows it never reaches adulthood and seemingly never ages. In this feature of the axolotl, the young man comes to the realization that death is a part of life for all men. He is scared of facing aging and dying, unsure how to react or feel about the unknown, and wants to avoid the question that all men hate to face. Looking to the axolotl for answers, he gets a paradoxical result. The animal that never ages, the animal he transforms into to escape the question of death, is a representation of death. The axolotl is lonely, immobile, seemingly lacking life, inexpressive, and unable to communicate, all things we associate with death.

The predicament that the spider and the speaker face is similar. They use their inner connections to search for meaningful bonds. Whitman's enactment in the first stanza of the spider reads as if the creature is somewhat isolated and "ever unreeling...ever tirelessly speeding" the web without the knowing of making any encroachment on his environment. However, the poem has an optimistic idea at the ending. Even though it is difficult to try and find connections, his soul will end up being successful and he will be able to rest, just like a spider when it completes it's web in

“The one who are walking away from Omelas” is often regarded as a short story that directly related to our society that extremely injustice exist. It also implied that to create a perfect world, suffering could not be prevented. To explain the message behind the story, the understanding of symbolism is important. The main argument of this paper is to argue that Ursula K. Le Guin used symbolism to show her attention on morality and exposition to reality. Therefore, differently used of symbolisms will be discussed in

Imagery is present throughout Walt Whitman’s Song Of Myself (-----). Whitman is able to draw the reader into the text and ground the abstract ideas back to the readers by appealing to a range of senses. Whitman also uses visual, tactile, auditory and olfactory to imagery give a sense of reality to the setting.

In Joe Wenderoth’s “My Life,” the speaker goes through a phase of realization in a metaphor of an animal, the caregiver's life, whose tamed life hurts its owner, which helps us when we’re confused with life and things don’t need. Throughout the beginning of the poem, the background of the speakers discovery of the animal is walked through, and it shows the symbolism and personification of the speaker’s life as an animal. Within the explanation of the care routine, the speaker denotes the motherly nurture routine to a metaphor and finds out a new identity to the animal. Similarly, during the end, the poet decides the roles in the poem have paths to part on without one another, and it all is decided from the new information. We learn that, sometimes,

In the poems “The Wanderer” and “The Dream of the Rood,” anonymous authors give way to the idea that an Almighty God will solve every problem a person has by doing two things: 1) drawing upon the memories of a warrior who has lost everything near and dear to him due to war, and 2) entering the dream of a man who has been exiled and isolated. Each piece takes its reader through the trials and tribulations that one may not relate to in this era, yet the reader is still there alongside the character wanting them to find peace with their world and themselves. Initially, it is believed that the characters will overcome their hardships and achieve the happiness they seek. However, as the reader delves deeper into the character’s story, there is an overwhelming sense of incompleteness. What actually happens at the end of each piece is not written in stone - telling us the story is not whole - nor has a conclusion been reached. The intrapersonal thoughts being shared with the reader reveal the obstacles that keep an overall wholeness from occurring.