A Noiseless Patient Spider, by Walt Whitman

Another installment of our Weekly Poetry Project: every week someone chooses a public domain poem (not too long) and posts it on the forum under Readers Wanted/Weekly Poetry. Everyone is encouraged to record a version of it.

This past week we chose:
A Noiseless Patient Spider, by Walt Whitman

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,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to
connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

And here is the randomly-chosen weekly poetry podcast, from among the eight readers:
Betsie reads: A Noiseless Patient Spider. An unusual and entertaining interpretation, Betsie!

The other seven fine versions are on our catalog page.

Check the forum for our next Weekly Poem and join the fun!