A Noiseless Patient Spider

by Walt Whitman (1868) — a poem card from Justes Mots

A spider flinging thread after thread into the void — and a soul doing the same, until something at last holds.

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, detached, in measureless oceans of space,…

Themes: reflection · encouragement