| |
Walt Whitman
(Whitman Style Sheet)
A Noiseless
Patient Spider
|
Whitman (1819-92)
daguerrotype (early photo) from
first edition of Leaves of
Grass,
self-published when Whitman was 36 |
A Noiseless
Patient Spider
[1]
A noiseless patient spider,
[2]
I marked where on a promontory it stood isolated,
[promontory = a projecting area (of land?)]
[3]
Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
[4]
It launched forth filament, filament, filament, out of
itself, [filament = thread]
[5]
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
[6]
And you O my soul where you stand,
[7]
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
[8]
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the
spheres to connect them,
[9]
Till the bridge you will need be formed, till the ductile
anchor hold, [ductile = pliable, flexible]
[10] Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my
soul. [gossamer = filmy substance of cobwebs]
|