A Noiseless Patient Spider

Listen to:

A Noiseless Patient Spider (:52)

by Walt Whitman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

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, detach’d, 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.