A Noiseless Patient Spider Poetry Lesson Summary
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 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.
Explaination Summary
1st Paragraph.
Apparently , the two descriptive stanzas tell us about the spider and the poet's soul ; the first is visible , the second invisible . The poet marked a noiseless patient spider standing isolated on a little promontory . The three adjectives - noiseless , patient , isolated - emphasise its total seclusion and loneliness . After probing into the vacant , vast surrounding , which in a way was threatening , the spider started weaving its web , in an attempt to overpower the surroundings . It was the vacancy around that triggered the spider's creativity , enabling it to lead a meaningful existence . The slow but tenacious and tireless launching forth brought a sense of fulfilment to it .
2nd Paragraph
In the second stanza , the poet addresses his soul and finds that it is also secluded , cut off , in ' measureless oceans of space ' like the spider . What the soul tries to do ceaselessly is to meditate and risk correcting the within , with the spheres outside . These attempts continue until the soul forms a bridge , like the spider's attempts to launch forth filaments from within , as a bridge with the macrocosm . In other words , the basic creative principle in man is the soul . It is the soul that oozes forth the best in man . The image of the spider used here is without a reference to the hunter hunted relationship . The soul is creative in that it seeks to establish a link with the world surrounding man . The visual quality of the image of the spider used to represent human creativity , makes the poem effective .
Though the poem is written in free verse it has a well - knit form . The lines of the stanzas bring out the spider - soul comparison with the use of parallelism in words and phrases . Repetition is creative , not mechanical . The slow oozing out of the spider's gossamer threads is suggested by the repetition of the word ' filament ' . This is also applied to the soul , it is suggested through the repetition of gerund - like words : musing , venturing , throwing , seeking . These words are suggested by the words ' unreeling ' and ' speeding ' of the first stanza . ' Tirelessly ' is matched by ' ceaselessly ' , ' isolated ' by ' surrounded ' , ' detached . ' Whereas the spider is marked as isolated on a little promontory ( mountain image ) , the soul is surrounded in measureless oceans of space ' ( sea image ) . The spider image is created in the second stanza by words like ' the ductile anchor ' and ' gossamer threads ' . The sound pattern of the poem also adds to the total effect of the poem . One can find many repetitive sounds carefully used in the poem .