A Noiseless Patient Spider
‘‘A Noiseless Patient Spider,’’ by the nineteenth-
century American poet Walt Whitman, was first
published in 1868 in theBroadway: A London
Magazine. Whitman then included the poem in
slightly altered form in the fifth edition of his
Leaves of Grassin 1871. The poem reached its
final form in that volume’s seventh edition, pub-
lished in 1881. ‘‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’’ is a
short, free-verse poem in two stanzas that uses
Whitman’s observation of the activity of a spider
as an opportunity to examine the activity of the
poet’s soul. Like a spider spinning its web from
within itself, the isolated soul tries to project
from within itself something that will enable
it to connect with the rest of the universe. The
poem may also be interpreted as being about
loneliness, about death and the hope for eternal
life, or about artistic creativity. Whitman is one
of the great American poets, and this poem is an
accessible introduction to his style—free verse
and long poetic lines—and many of his typical
thematic concerns.
Author Biography
One of the greatest American poets, Walt Whit-
man was born on May 31, 1819, in West Hills,
a village near Huntington, on Long Island,
New York. His father, Walter Whitman, was a
farmer and carpenter with little education. When
189WALT WHITMAN
1881