other land than democratic America’’ after the
triumph of the Union forces in the Civil War.
Traditional Nature Poetry
Whitman’s ‘‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’’ belongs
in part to a long tradition of nature poetry and
prose, in which nature is seen as providing moral
and spiritual lessons for humans. In English
poetry, the tradition can be found in the work of
the seventeenth-century metaphysical poets, espe-
cially Henry Vaughan, in poems such as ‘‘Cock-
Crowing,’’ ‘‘Waterfall,’’ and the untitled poem
that begins ‘‘I walkt the other day (to spend my
hour).’’ In the first poem, for example, just as the
cock watches and waits for the dawn, so should
men watch for the hour when God will come.COMPARE
&
CONTRAST 1860s:The American Civil War takes place
from 1861 to 1865 and results in the end of
slavery. George Whitman, Walt Whitman’s
brother, is wounded at the battle of Freder-
icksburg in 1862. From 1862 to 1864, Whit-
man visits wounded soldiers in hospitals in
Washington, D.C., jotting down in his Civil
War notebook the first draft of ‘‘A Noiseless
Patient Spider.’’
Today: Different regions in the United
States still have very different political phi-
losophies and party allegiances, but ideolog-
ical battles are fought at the ballot box
rather than with guns. Political commenta-
tors sometimes divide the country into so-
called red states (Republican) and blue
states (Democratic), but these are in many
cases fluid distinctions that may change
from one election cycle to the next.
1860s:In the years immediately following
the Civil War there is a widespread sense
that the country has entered a period of
corruption. There are a number of financial
scandals, and in 1868 President Andrew
Johnson is impeached but acquitted before
the Senate. Whitman begins writing the
essays that will make upDemocratic Vistas
(1871), in which he expresses his disillusion-
ment with the condition of the country.
Today:Beginning in 2008, following years
of financial deregulation, soaring military
budgets, and corruption in the rebuilding
of Iraq, the worst economic crisis since theGreat Depression of the 1930s envelops
the United States and much of the rest of
the world. Long-established companies fail,
savings and investments are lost, and unem-
ployment rises.
1860s: In an article about spiders that
appears inHarper’s New Monthly Magazine,
the writer mentions how scientists have tried
to make use of spider silk. A French scientist
named Bon has managed to make a few
gloves and stockings out of the silk, but
they cost more than their weight in gold.
Another contemporary scientist estimates
that to create a pound of spider silk would
take the work of 27,648 spiders. No human
use has yet been found for spiders other than
the fact that in some cultures, spiders are
eaten and considered a delicacy.
Today:Research is being conducted into the
possibility of using venom from the Austral-
ian Blue Mountains funnel-web spider as an
insecticide. Because the venom kills insects
but does not affect vertebrates, it may be
usable as an environmentally friendly pesti-
cide. Research is also ongoing into the use of
spider venom to correct cardiac arrhythmia.
Researchers report that a peptide isolated
from the venom of the spiderGrammostola
spatulatainhibits atrial fibrillation, a condi-
tion that occurs in people suffering from
valve disease, hypertension, and chronic lung
disease.A Noiseless Patient Spider