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An Analysis Of Walt Whitman's A Noiseless Patient Spider

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Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider” was initially published in 1868, in London Magazine. Originally, it was the third section of a larger poem, entitle “Whispers of Heavenly Death.” In the poem, “A Noiseless Patient Spider” the speaker, Walt Whitman repeatedly emphasizes the connection between the spider and his soul. In this poem, the speaker observes a noiseless patient spider on a promontory leaving a mark on its vast surrounding by weaving its web. The main idea of this poem is to draw the comparison between the spider and the speaker’s soul. This poem consists of two stanzas of five line each and both stanzas mirror each other in size and structure. The separation of the stanzas represents a shift from literal to figurative desires. …show more content…

It delineates the difficulty of human life and how hopeless it can be. Imagery is frequently used diction in this poem which is “A Noiseless Spider.” Whitman uses various imagery to symbolize how speaker feels and he represents the spider as his soul. The first line of the poem, “A Noiseless Patient Spider” gives image of motionless spider, alone and isolated with no sign of life. Walt Whitman fascinatedly starts describing his experience of watching the spider weaving its web in the first stanza. The fourth line of this poem, “It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself” further evokes the repetition of the efforts and he is stuck doing the same thing for the rest of his life. The speaker elevates these images to metaphor in his second stanza of his poem. In the second stanza, “And you, O my soul…catch somewhere, O my soul” the speaker describes the environment considered and understood by the human soul. Furthermore, it describes the movements, and expresses the idea of a soul that is unchained by the human body. In line seven, “surrounded, detached in measureless oceans of space” describes both the Spider and the speaker are incapable of finding anything meaningful in the world, but they keep trying their best with the hope of an ultimate change in the situation. For example, “measureless oceans of space” draws attention of the loneliness that the speaker

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