Essay - The Creative Spidering of Life Walt Whitman's Poem, 'A Noiseless...

The Creative Spidering of Life

Walt Whitman's poem, "A Noiseless Patient Spider," is commonly believed to deal with the human dilemma. As such, it addresses the anxiety and absurd*****y ***** life. Looking at the poem in the context of Whitman's life ***** work, a competing interpret*****tion emerges. This poem addresses not just the ***** dilemma, but the creative dilemma in specific, serv*****g as a guide ***** ***** acts of poetic creation.

As a poem about the human situation, it is commentary on ***** finiteness of human life in the universal scope. "The theme is solitude... the analogy of a spider sitting ***** a little promontory surrounded by vacant space as a parallel to his own ***** condition" (Ch*****e, 27) Many interpreters see it as a dark, despairing ***** about voids in the human soul. However, some prefer to ***** a poem about the persistence of hope. Orr, writing an interpretation for trauma survivors, claims the *****'s webbing is a metaphor for the self-image. He says that ***** create a new web ***** to ***** a ***** self. "The old self was destroyed by traumatic violence... [yet] If the self is annihilated, *****n it ***** possible and necessary to create a new self... It is a movement from trauma to transformation." (Orr, 11) Thus t***** ***** also a poem ***** sublima*****ion and transformative power.

Being both a ***** about the voids of the ***** and ***** sublimation of ***** into creativity, this poem depicts the essential work of an artist. In early musings on ***** concept, Whitm***** wrote: "Have you noticed the [worm] on a twig re*****ching out in the immense vacancy time ***** again, trying point after point? Not more *****lessly does the tongue or the pen of man, essay out in the spiritual spheres, to state them." (Belasco & Price, 4b) One recalls that in early versions ***** the *****, a ***** rather than a spider is the central figure. Hence it appears Whitman seizes this image as a ***** for the artist attempting ***** encompass the expanses of spiritual/organic nature and reality.

In Song ***** My***** and elsewhere, Whitman reveals a pan*****istic awareness of the world in which each individual is a part of the created order and ***** helps create that order. His egotism is unbounded, ***** extends to all things, suggesting that every leaf of grass ***** equally supreme. All of nature and the poet are one; the poet's job is ***** sublimate extracts from ***** great ***** and matters of ***** and re-create them in poetic *****ms and ***** renewed self-awareness, even as "the garden spider has to rebuild its web every day." (Orr, *****)

This poem is obviously important to Whitman's self-concept, for ***** keep appearing through-out his career, from early journals to final *****s. It should be noted that the focus of the ***** changes eventually. Originally it speaks about difficulties in seeking love. It *****comes ***** universalized, and later ***** to the difficult charge of a creative entity reaching out to the