FEATURED POEM
A Noiseless Patient Spider

by Walt Whitman

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(Issue 6 · posted April 18, 1997; archived May 2, 1997)

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 launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself.
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.

And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detatched, 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.

Walt Whitman is currently featured in Poet's Corner, an online collection of poems, "from medieval ballads in middle english to poems of the early 20th century, from lone quatrains to entire books."