Great Walt Whitman Poem

A Noiseless Patient Spider

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.


Walt Whitman is the father of modern American poetry (there was a long pregnancy, a long gestation!). He is the greatest American poet (along with Galway Kinnell, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Li-Young Lee, E.E. Cummings, Wallace Stevens, and a dozen others). The poem above never particularly struck me until I read the analysis written by one of my students.

I like the prayer-like or hymn-like quality of this poem with the repetition of "o my soul." This somewhat mournful (yet not mournful) refrain makes the poem so human, so full of feeling. This poet's soul is an adventurer, a seeker, living in a rather lonely and scary environment: "Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space." He sends forth, ventures out, seeks, throws, launches these filaments of hope, trying to connect with the wonders of the universe (which I take to mean both things and people). It's an act of faith, an act of hope. Walt Whitman has written a great prayer, and I pray that prayer too, o my soul!