its a poem...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

1. A NOISELESS
PATIENT SPIDER
Walt Whitman

2. ◦ "A Noiseless Patient Spider" is a lyric poem written by the 19th Century American poet Walt Whitman.
◦ Whitman originally wrote the poem as part of a longer piece, "Whispers of Heavenly Death," for The Broadway, A
London Magazine in 1868.
◦ The poem was later republished in an 1891 edition of Leaves of Grass.
◦ Although much shorter than many of his well-known poems, "A Noiseless Patient Spider" deals with one of the
central concerns in Whitman's work: what it means to be an individual seeking and creating connections with the
larger world.

3. Walt Whitman
◦ Walt Whitman is America’s world poet—a latter-day successor to Homer, Virgil, Dante, and Shakespeare.
◦ In Leaves of Grass (1855, 1891-2), he celebrated democracy, nature, love, and friendship.
◦ This monumental work chanted praises to the body as well as to the soul, and found beauty and reassurance even in death.
◦ Along with Emily Dickinson, Whitman is regarded as one of America’s most significant 19th-century poets and was a important
influence on many later poets, including Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Allen Ginsberg, Simon Ortiz, C.K. Williams, and
Martín Espada.
◦ Whitman published his own enthusiastic review of Leaves of Grass. Critics and readers alike, however, found both Whitman’s style
and subject matter unnerving.
◦ After suffering a serious stroke in 1873, Whitman moved to his brother’s home in Camden, New Jersey.
◦ While his poetry failed to garner popular attention from his American readership during his lifetime, over 1,000 people came to
view his funeral.
◦ And as the first writer of a truly American poetry, Whitman’s legacy endures.

4. 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.

5. LINE BY LINE ANALYSIS
A noiseless patient spider,
The speaker noticed a silent spider
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
standing alone on a small ledge.
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
The speaker further noticed that the spider, in order to investigate
its huge, empty environment,

6. It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
sent out thread after thread.
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
The spider is described as doing this constantly and perpetually,
without appearing to get tired or slow down.

7. ◦ Popularity of “A Noiseless Patient Spider”: This poem was written
by Walt Whitman, a great American poet. A Noiseless Patient Spider is
famous for its themes of isolation and struggle. It was first published in
1891. The poem unfolds the story of a lonely spider, which the poet
examines so carefully. It illustrates how the spider tries to connect things
while weaving its web.

8. ◦ “A Noiseless Patient Spider”: As a Representative of Loneliness: The
speaker illustrates two things; the struggle of the lonely spider and the
condition of his soul. At the outset, he provides a graphic picture that
the spider, all alone on a little promontory, casts out its web-threads in a
vast surrounding. He discusses its isolation and detachment from the
rest of the world. Later, he compares his soul with that spider. He says
that his soul is also struggling to seek spheres that can connect the
speaker to the immeasurable world. Unlike spider, his soul is a seeker
trying to attach itself to the vacant surroundings.

9. ◦ Major Themes in “A Noiseless Patient Spider”: Isolation, struggle,
and patience are the major themes of this poem. The poet contrasts the
battle of his soul with a tiny spider. He explicitly unfolds the effort of
the spider and explores the idea that only those who work tirelessly and
hold patience connect themselves to the unfathomable world.

10. THANK YOU