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A Noiseless Patient Spider

"A Noiseless Patient Spider" is a short poem by Walt Whitman. It was originally part of his poem "Whispers of Heavenly Death", written expressly for The Broadway, A London Magazine, issue 10 (October 1868), numbered as stanza "3". It was retitled "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and reprinted as part of a larger cluster in Passage to India (1871). The poem was later published in Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass. The poem has inspired other poets and musical compositions for its theme of the individual soul in relation to the world.

Page 343 of Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, containing "A Noiseless Patient Spider," published 1891.

Publications

Original Publication

The first version of the poem, published in 1868, appears below:

A noiseless, patient spider,

I mark'd, where, on a little promontory; it stood, isolated;

Mark'd how, to explore the vacant, vast surrounding,

It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself;

Ever unreeling them-- ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you, O my soul, where you stand,

Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,

Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing,-- seeking the spheres, to connect them;

Till the bridge you will need, be form'd-- till the ductile anchor hold;

Till the gossamer thread you fling, catch somewhere, O my soul.

The later published versions do not differ substantially from the original.

Early Publications and Drafts

The first ideas for "A Noiseless Patient Spider" appear in a notebook held by Whitman in the mid 19th century. Whitman's musings in this passage flesh out one of the most critically discussed themes of the poem: the experience of the Self. The first final version of the poem was included as the third part of a poem collection called “Whispers of Heavenly Death,” published in The Broadway. A London Magazine in 1868. This first publication did not specify “A Noiseless Patient Spider” as an independent poem. Its second appearance, in Whitman’s A Passage to India (1871), makes this distinction, evidenced by the use of printing the first word (of more than one letter) in "lower-case capitals", which was a publishing convention used in the 19th century to designate the beginning of a poem. The only other changes made between the first two publications are several line indentations, the numbering of the stanzas, and the removal of a comma after “noiseless.” In 1891, the poem was published again in Leaves of Grass, with new indentation, eleven dropped commas, and the substitution of all dashes and semicolons for commas. The version published in Leaves of Grass is shown in the image above. This is the version most commonly published.

Structure and Theme

"A Noiseless Patient Spider" is in free verse. The poem is ten lines total, split into two stanzas of five lines. Paul Diehl analyzes the significance of Whitman's use of the free verse form as a reflection of "the spirit of America" during the age of Manifest Destiny and westward expansion. Whitman writes in the preface to Leaves of Grass (1855) that "The United States themselves are essentially the greatest poem." Diehl suggests the absence of traditional structure of rhyme and meter in A Noiseless Patient Spider, and other Whitman poetry, contributes to Whitman's characterization of of an unexplored America through his poetry: "the United States were everywhere...[in] the uncharted idea of the poetic line itself, freed from counting fingers to exploring the spaces between them."

The poem deals with the themes of isolation, particularly the isolation of an individual soul in relation to the larger world. Whitman uses a central extended metaphor in which the spider in the poem represents the speaker's soul. Other literary devices employed include inverted syntax ("A noiseless, patient spider/I mark'd, where, on a little promontory; it stood") and repetition ("It launch'd forth filament, filament, filament"). Joseph Andriano comments on the effect of inverted syntax as it contributes to the theme of isolation: "Whitman suspends the soul in... 'measureless oceans of space'-- and suspends the reader as well in lines that form an incomplete sentence (the second stanza is a phrase followed by a subordinate clause, several participle phrases, then several subordinate clauses)."

Influences

The Soul, or the Self, is a prominent theme in "A Noiseless Patient Spider." Wilton Eckley argues much of Whitman's poetry, including Whitman's spider-as-soul metaphor in "A Noiseless Patient Spider," was influenced by the poetry of Emerson. Whitman's poetry has in turn inspired other poets. The work of Iranian poet Parvin E'tesami suggests such an influence. "A Noiseless Patient Spider" would have been considered appropriate content for a young girl in Iran, and E'tesami likely studied the poem in school. Her poem "God's Weaver" features a spider protagonist and deals with the theme of isolation, which is prevalent in Whitman's poem.

"A Noiseless Patient Spider" has influenced musical compositions. Ingolf Dahl, a German-American composer, developed a three part women's chorus with piano accompaniment, using the poem "A Noiseless Patient Spider" as lyrics. Composer and conductor Kenneth Fuchs composed "Whispers of Heavenly Death: String Quartet No. 3 After Poems by Walt Whitman." This instrumental interpretation was performed by the American String Quartet in Ann Arbor, Michigan on February 7, 1999.