A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless patient spider, I marked where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Marked how to explore the vacant, vast surrounding, It launched forth filament, filament, filament, Out of itself, ever unreeling them, And ever hither and thither scanning, round to round, With the slenderest, silken threads.

And you, O soul, You baffled, toiled, in your own nakedness With the lines of the web of life, From the motionless space of Yourself.

• Walt Whitman