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Walt Whitman's A Noiseless, Patient Spider

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In “A Noiseless, Patient Spider,” Walt Whitman suggests that to survive and achieve emotional fulfillment, connections must be present. In stanza 1, the author mentions a spider trying to make a web on a “promontory” over the sea (1.line 2). The spider is personified in the first stanza and described as “noiseless [and] patient”, which helps the reader discover the spider’s initial personality and instinct. In lines 2 and 3, the writer uses the repetition of the word “mark’d” to signify the importance of the next lines, in which he parallels the speaker to the spider through word-choice and further repetition. The words “vacant” and “vast” provide the reader with a sense of the spider’s precarious nature and the words’ alliteration add emphasis to the magnitude of the setting and …show more content…

This line’s use of repetition shows the spider’s instinctual determination. The repetition could be read as literal, implying that the spider does not stop trying to make its web, or the repetition of the word “filament”, a fragile thread-like fiber, could be a dramatic use of sentence structuring to emphasize the spider’s urgency(1.4) . Whitman uses the fifth line in this stanza to deliberately repeat the concept of the spider’s unceasing determination. Through repetition of “ever” and “them”, the reader's understanding of the spider’s resilience is heightened (1.5). Also, the dash in the final line draws the reader’s eye, making this particular line the most important to understand. In stanza 2, instead of continuing to share his observation of the spider, the speaker begins to reflect on what he learned from the spider. In line 6, the first word, “And” links the spider to the speaker, thus linking the two stanzas. The speaker expresses internal questioning using the apostrophe “O my Soul”, integrating a personal struggle to the poem (2.6). The word “stand” plays a major part

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