Imagery and Diction in Walt Whitman’s “A Noiseless Patient Spider”

Imagery is the most common literary technique in the poem, while most of the lines have a concrete image in it that helps the reader in seeing exactly what the poet intends them to see. The first example occurs on the first line; “A noiseless patient spider.” This visual image brings pictures of small, perfectly still, spiders sitting on their perfect webs for days at a time, completely unmoving, no sign of life at all. It is amazing all the thoughts those words can bring to mind. The image of the motionless spider, completely alone and isolated, as depicted in the first three lines of the poem introduces the idea that the speaker feels alone in the world. The image of the “vacant vast surrounding” also hints at the speaker’s doubt in the meaning of life. If the spider is the speaker’s soul, then the surroundings should be the rest of the universe, and if the rest of the universe is empty and there are no other souls or things for the filaments to connect to, then what is the purpose of “tirelessly speeding them” on?

Another image can be seen in second stanza, “surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,” is a clear reference between the spider's duty and the speaker's. Both the speaker and the spider seem incapable of finding anything else in the universe, or at least anything meaningful. However they both keep trying, either with optimistic hope or blindness. Also the speaker can be incapable of admit the idea that there could be nothing else in the universe besides himself, “the vacant vast surrounding” and is so optimistic or too incapable of that terrible realization to stop launching “forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself.”

The last two lines of the poem can be interpreted as supporting the idea that the speaker is habitually optimistic. One other interpretation can be disproving the idea that the speaker is alone in the universe; “till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile anchor hold, till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, o my soul.” What ever interpretation the reader chooses to take from these lines, the images in “A Noiseless Patient Spider” holds great importance inside the poem.

The words that Whitman chooses to use in his poem often have secondary meanings. For example, at line four, “it launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,” could be stated that the spider was making a web, but the words Whitman chooses to use carry more meaning. The idea of the spider “launching” filament supports the idea that there is a correlation between the spider and the speaker and symbolizes the speaker’s attempts to make connections in the universe. The words “out of itself” also support this idea, it leads the reader to think of the filaments as attempts by the speaker’s soul to find meaning, and since they are coming from deep inside the reader, they are coming “out of itself.”

To conclude, we can say the poem can be interpreted in two ways, one is the pessimistic, vast vacancy of life, and one is hopeful search of a place in a society. With its word choice and image usage it is an exceptional poem, and they help to build up the main message of the poem.