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  • Essay / Exploring the Loneliness of Identity in "A Noiseless Patient Spider"

    Explanation of "A Noiseless Patient Spider" "A Noiseless Patient Spider" is a poem written by Walt Whitman focusing on those who search for meaning and goals when going out into the world to explore. Throughout this poem, alliteration, figurative language, and imagery are used as literary devices to describe the theme. The author conveys that patience and perseverance are not always springboards to achieving goals and finding yourself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essayThe ideas expressed in A Noiseless, Patient Spider are found primarily in the metaphor of the spider. Here the spider is for the soul. The spider throws its thread at anything and moves towards whatever it sticks to. Likewise, Whitman also throws his thoughts, thoughts, and ideas at anything, and keeps whatever they stick to as the truth. For Whitman, there is little certainty about what is true, because this must be discerned by testing what is presented as truth. Whitman uses imagery in the first stanza to focus on mood. The speaker describes: “A patient and silent spider, / I marked where, on a little promontory, it stood isolated.” This reveals that the spider is alone as it keeps itself away from everything else. The image of an isolated person creates a dark mood because the spider remains distant from the rest of the world. These actions demonstrate the spider's patience because, despite its lack of love and loneliness, it continually remains in the same area without progressing toward acceptance. Whitman also states: “thrown with a filament…never rolling them…relentlessly.” The spider's actions combine to create a desperate mood as it constantly attempts to expand its web to get out and explore the world. However, his isolation prevents him from truly experiencing life, creating an atmosphere of despair. Perseverance manifests itself through the spider's activities as it constantly tries to surpass its limits. Alliteration is used in the first stanza to cause readers to pay attention to the overall picture being created. The speaker says, “he was isolated, / he showed how to explore the vast vacant surroundings.” Whitman uses the alliteration of the “v” to make readers focus on the spider’s isolation. The emphasis on the two v's causes readers to have more compassion and concern for the spider. The spider being lonely creates a blank image in the readers mind. This demonstrates patience because despite being ostracized, the spider still remains in the area waiting for change. Another example of alliteration is "thrown filament, filament, filament, out of itself, / unrolling them always, always tirelessly." The alliteration of "F" makes a hissing-like noise, which is what a web projection would probably sound like. The repetition of the "E" shows how often the spider has attempted to spin a web in its small area even though it is not achieving its goals in trying to break free from isolation. This example shows how much effort the spider always puts in, but never achieves the same result. In the second stanza, the author uses figurative language as a tool to give the work a deeper meaning. The speaker states: “and you, O my soul, where you stand, / Surrounded, detached, in oceans of measureless space.” He presents his soul in this stanza and begins to compare himself to the spider using it as a metaphor. They are both in an empty space and, just like the spider, readers can infer that the speaker..