‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’ by Walt Whitman

In this post we’ll read a wonderful short poem by Walt Whitman. Titled after its first line ‘A Noiseless Patient Spider’, it’s a two-stanza, free verse poem, in which Whitman likens his own soul to the tiny creature. Just as the patient little spider cautiously weaves his web, so does the poet’s soul make connections between things in the outside world.

Below the poem you’ll find a vocabulary exercise designed for English language learners, as well as a list of other resources related to Walt Whitman found on this website.

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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.

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VOCABULARY EXERCISE

Find the words in the poem with the following meaning:

• empty, not occupied (adjective)
• thinking, reflecting (present participle)
• capable of being shaped or bent or drawn out, malleable (adjective)
• separate, disconnected (adjective)
• continuously, non-stop (adverb)
• very thin and delicate (adjective)
• taking a risk, daring (present participle)
• a high point of land or rock projecting into the body of water (noun)
• huge, immense (adjective)
• a thin thread, fibre (noun)

To check your answers, please click here.

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RELATED RESOURCES

‘A Glimpse’ by Walt Whitman

How to interpret a poem (with a little help from Whitman)

‘The First Dandelion’ by Walt Whitman

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COVER IMAGE CREDIT

Photo by Jan Huber on Unsplash