Depiction of Poet’s Sout in a Noiseless Patient Spider

Explication of A Noiseless Patient Spider

The poem, A Noiseless Patient Spider, connects the life of a spider to the soul of the poet. The speaker talks about a spider on a high peak above a body of water trying to create a web. When the spider attempts to create a web in the “vacant vast surrounding,” in line 3, the spider has trouble making a straight web that connects to the otherside. The spider has patience as said in the first line when the speaker repeats the title of the poem in the first line when the speaker writes “A noiseless patient spider,” to show emphasis. The poet compares the struggles of the spider to his life in trying to find out who he is in the world. No matter how many times you try to reach your goal, never give up because eventually you will get there.

Many times the spider launched his web “ever tirelessly speeding them,” hoping to get a good grip and finish his home. This shows the reader that the tone is desperate because the spider will not give up. The speaker connects this with his soul and how he is lost and isolated from the rest of the world. In the beginning, “A noiseless patient spider”, the author uses personification when writing down patient as a trait for the spider.

In stanza two the poem no longer talks about the spider because the speaker has already put enough emphasis into the life of the spider that we will keep the thought of its struggles in our minds read the rest of the poem as it gets into more deeper thoughts about the poet. When the speaker writes that he is “surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,” he is saying that he is alone and he does not know what to do with his life. The speaker tries many times “ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,” in an effort to find out who he is in this world and eventually, he will. In the last two sentences of the poem they both start with the word till. This gives the reader a sense of conclusion because by trying many times the spider eventually gets a firm grip as there is a straight line of web for the spider to finish the rest of his home when is says the “ductile anchor hold,” symbolizing that the spider’s web has connected to the other side firmly. The speaker also finally finds something in his life that can help him find out who he really is when reality hits him when the poem concludes with “thread you fling catch somewhere, O, My soul.”