I. the ocean came gently
Whispering, I love you
travell’d a long way
fear’d I might lose you
the last words dying
in the rolling ocean
like a single drop “came” miraculous
grateful to have last moments
part life and fear
entering into the afterlife
noiseless, patient
I mark’d a little promontory, isolated
Mark’d vacant, vast surrounding
II.It launch’d forth unreeling
tirelessly speeding Noiseless
a spider on a rock small
It weaves a complex, beautiful web
pays close attention
completes its task
By the end importance clear
lines open-ended. its web
a metaphor for soul but means
isn’t clear.
9.6.22
23 lines
Redaction Poetry
The Daily Poem
Redacted From:
Walt Whitman, From Poetry Analysis
Out of the rolling ocean the crowd came a drop gently to me,
Whispering, I love you, before long I die,
I have travell’d a long way merely to look on you to touch you,
For I could not die till I once look’d on you,
For I fear’d I might afterward lose you.
In this lesser-known piece, Walt Whitman describes the last words of a narrator’s dying lover and his assurances they will find one another again in the rolling ocean. The poem begins with the speaker telling his reader that someone, like a single drop from the ocean, “came” to him. This is something that seems miraculous to the speaker. He is grateful to have found someone to spend his last moments with. He is part of the circle of life and death, and by the end of the poem, the fear associated with entering into the afterlife has dissipated.
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.
In ‘A Noiseless Patient Spider,’ the speaker spends the poem watching a spider. It is on a rock overlooking the ocean. Although it is small, the impact on the area and the speaker is clear. It weaves a complex, beautiful web. The speaker pays close attention to how, string by string, the spider completes its task.
By the end of the poem, the larger importance of the text as a metaphor is made clear. The final lines conclude the poem, but they are very open-ended. He says that he sees the spider and its web as a metaphor for his soul, but what exactly he means by this isn’t clear.
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