Figurative Language In Walt Whitman's A Noiseless Patient Spider

Continually Alone, Ever Seeking
In poetry there are many literary devices and aspects of figurative language that influence different themes and how readers are able to interpret the meaning behind a specific poet’s literary work. Through these devices one may correctly interpret and understand the thoughts a writer is trying to convey by his or her words written on paper or listened to by a reader. One facet of figurative language that can be used to construct and identify a theme in a poem is the use of analogy. In Walt Whitman’s poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider” the analogy of the spider compared to the soul is the main type of figurative language used to develop structure, the theme of isolation, as well as the theme of wanting to make connections because of that isolation throughout Whitman’s lyrical work.
The poem begins with the introduction of “a noiseless patient spider” who is alone and detached constantly seeking to make connections with its strands of “filament”. The language used throughout the poem reinforces Whitman’s theme of isolation and the strong urge to make connections in the face of an intense isolation. For example, when he writes “It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them,” the …show more content…
The detachment and isolation it feels, as well as the overwhelming sensation it has to make a connection somewhere with its web is mirrored in the yearning the soul has to unceasingly seek out and pursue a connection until one is found. Whitman shows with this analogy that a soul can also feel alone and cut off from the world; however, no matter how “vast” and “measureless” that space may feel both the spider and soul will still seek out to find a connection and make a bridge that will free them of the confinement that isolation