A Noiseless Patient Spider
Upon my first reading of Walt Whitmanâs âA Noiseless Patient Spiderâ, I felt pretty confident in my synthesis; this was a poem musing about loneliness and the desire for a connection. Whitmanâs poem is structured generically, not possessing the irregularity and contradictions that would denote a poem as traditionally difficult. Upon my second and third reading however, it became evidently clear to me that it is the literary devices and specific vocabulary Whitman implements wherein lay the difficulty in analyzing this poem. What exactly about loneliness is Whitman trying to convey through his repeated use of commas, specific vocabulary choice, and use of a spider as the hook of the poem? I decided that my first step to try and break down Whitmanâs poem would be to identify the intended audience.Â
During my first read, I concluded that the speaker is Whitman himself, given the first person pronouns that make up his observations. However, I was stuck trying to figure out who Whitmanâs intended audience was. In the second stanza of the poem, he addresses his soul as âyouâ and â my” which effectively anthropomorphizes his soul and gives it humanistic individuality. Whitmanâs alternation between first and second person makes me believe that this whole poem is really just for himself; more specifically his soul which he emphasizes as separate from his body. Yet, seemingly out of nowhere, his description of his soul becomes physical as he describes âspheres to connect themâ (Line 8). I donât understand how the abstract idea of a soul that has no sense of physicality could âseek spheres”? What exactly are the spheres he refers to? Who is âthemâ? These questions flooded my mind as this line stubbornly refused to make sense. This line felt thrust upon me where the rest of the poem I felt I had comprehended relatively well. Yet, as I went onto my second and then third re-reading, Whitmanâs purpose in adding a physicality to the soul began to make a little more sense to me.Â
Letâs start with audience. Immediately, I was struck with the randomness of the use of a spider in the poem. I focused on the poemâs syntax and vocabulary in hopes that it would give me some insight into the overall message being conveyed. Whitman emphasizes the netting that spiders form through the repetition of the word âfilamentâ three times in a row. This repetition began to form a vivid image in my head of a spider spewing out an intricate silkÂ
netting. I hypothesized that perhaps the reason why Whitman chose a spider was because of how easy it is to imagine a spider and their action of spinning a web. This hypothesis makes sense. Whitman comes back to the idea of a spider web when talking about the soulâs desires.In a metaphor about the soul, he writes. â âŠtill the gossamer thread you fling catchâŠâ. Whitman’s use of imagery is echoed in both stanzas and it made me begin to form a parallel connection between the spider and the soul. Then, looking at his selection of words, the words âgossamer threadâ could have entirely worked without the word gossamer. âDuctile anchorâ could have worked without the word ductile. This got me thinking. Why would Whitman add imagery to the abstract concept of a soul? Then, I had an AHA moment. Both Whitmanâs anthropomorphising of his soul with first and second pronouns, and his vivid imagery of how the soul seeks similar to a spider catching something on its web serves to explain to his audience (himself?) that man and nature are indubitably intertwined.
I then did one last reading of my poem. My conclusion is this: this poem isnât about loneliness. It is about human nature. Whitman uses action words when describing the spiderâs spinning of webs with âunreelingâ and âspeedingâ. This gives the spider a sense of urgency in spinning its web. Going back to word filament, the repetition of the word three times stresses how the spider is putting all of its energy and resources into spinning its web. It doesnât know why it spins the web, it simply does. Echoed in matters of the soul, Whitman once again uses action words in the second stanza when describing how the soul seeks an intangible something. â…musing, venturing, throwing, seeking…âJust like the spider, the soul doesnât know why or what it seeks, it simply does
While I am still confused as to what the âspheresâ that Whitman mentioned could possibly be alluding to and I am unsure
 what exactly the soul seeks in this poem, I have found a way to work around it. In breaking down the poem to its core, I was able to see past my original thoughts that the poem was about loneliness. Through detailed analysis, I was able to appreciate Whitmanâs intricately poetic assertion about human nature.Â
Hello Ashley! One of the first things you touched on was Whitman’s constant use of “I” which I thought was kind of contradicting to what we learned in class. Mr. Williams always says that we need to differentiate the poet from the speaker but in this case, Whitman could be both. You then start to touch on a little bit of personification, the idea that a soul can’t grasp anything is clearly not a physical description but more so points to the analysis that Whitman is striving for human connection. I also like that you end up connecting both man and nature because the first time I read this poem I simply thought nature was being used for symbolism, and although it is, there could be a deeper meaning to its presence as well. Your ending analysis is also amazing. It is something I would have never thought of but it makes complete sense. Whitman is bringing up the idea that spiders spin webs just because they know they have to, it goes along with the same idea that humans do not always know why we do the things we do. Sometimes we just want to fit in or follow the norms of society. Overall great work Ashley, I think you chose a wonderful poem.
Hi Ashley!
Given that the audience of my poem literally was Walt Whitman, I felt like I had to pay it forward and comment on the blog of someone who had written about one of Whitmanâs poems. Thankfully, you delivered.
In my reading of my own poem, I discovered that Whitman was part of the romantic era of American literature, which emphasized the self, the natural world, and individual experience. I definitely noticed the same themes in âA Noiseless Patient Spiderâ – whereas my poem pinpointed one specific person as its audience, Iâve never seen a speaker direct a poem toward themselves, or at least, their soul. To that end, I think the reason why Whitman chose a spider as his central symbol is because when a spider spins their web, they exorcize part of themselves (as Whiman notes, the spider launches filament âout of itselfâ).
The act of spinning a web, seeking out human connection, or turning a âvacant vast ” into a meaningful place requires that we sacrifice a bit of ourselves, that we bare our soul for others to see.
Finally, I just had to note that your claim about the spider/the soul aimlessly seeking reminded me of the story of the rolling Indian head in There There (The book reads: â[The head] wanted more. More of anything. More of everything. And it just kept rollingâ.). Itâs always fascinating to me when writers are able to explore the same ideas or concepts across different contexts or even centuries later.
Ashley,
Before reading your analysis, I wanted to challenge myself by trying to conclude what is going on and then compare them to yours. What I have found is that his soul is like this isolated spider that will continue to jut out its webs to try and find something to meet the other end, waiting to create a web (or a network) to become connected. As I began to read your analysis, I found that we thought very similarly about the way the spider is isolated. But, your drive to figure out what loneliness is and what lies beneath the poem intrigues me. I would not have thought this poem to be difficult if I had read it on a website somewhere. As you said, at first glance, this looks very easy to understand. But, you have opened my eyes up to the possibilities of what this poem can hold. When I got to the end of your analysis, I was shocked. I would have never thought about the ideas you brought forth like how this poem may be about human nature and not loneliness at all. This is something that I could very well see as true. I am basing this knowledge on my minimal understanding of who Walt Whitman is as a poet, which I got from reading the book The Notebook where the main character reads Whitman a lot. Overall, I enjoyed reading through your thought process where your determination to find deeper meanings in poems shined through. I hope I can apply this mentality to my future difficult poems.
Hi Ashley! That is a scary spider! After a couple of reads, I thought it was really interesting how the title references a spider and how the first half of the poem describes a spider but then itâs never mentioned again in the second half of it. I kind of imagined a simple spider web just suspended in darkness as a visualization and I guess thatâs how the soul is viewed in this. I also did not understand âspheresâ? Dewdrops came to mind but it doesnât really connect at all. I like how you ask questions and answer them within your essay as it helps shows your train of thought and makes it a lot more engaging to read. Although the poem is pretty short, the echoing of the spider to the soul really stands out. Another thing I found interesting in your essay is that you didnât analyze from the first to the last line. The spider has mentioned the entire half of the first poem but your analysis of it ties into the whole thing because of the connection of filaments to the last word of soul. I like the summarization of your analysis at the end as well!