Comparison of two poems: `Design` and ` A Noiseless Patient Spider` - similarities and differences

Building Ties and Surrendering Wings

The poem A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman and Robert Frost 's Design find common ground in their main character : a spider . The structures of the poems are the same in that they have two stanzas , with the first one introducing the spider by way of . The second stanzas make way for reflection , with Noiseless touching on the subject of the Soul , and Design conjecturing on the motivation of the spider . At first glance , the poems seem to have a trivial and limited scope because they

feature a mere insect as protagonist . However , as the poems unfold one can see that there are more meanings to unearth , more sides to the story , more insights to the human condition

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

In this poem , the spider is weaving a web to attach itself to its surroundings , like the Soul of the persona in the poem which is trying to reach out and connect with something . The most noticeable theme is the struggle to overcome vacancy and space , by launching filaments and flinging threads ' in to finally belong somewhere . By talking about a spider and such a complex thing as the Soul in one poem Whitman draws a parallel between the life 's labor of an insect and a human , effectively highlighting the fundamental similarity among creatures in this universe

I found a dimpled spider , fat and white

On a white heal-all , holding up a moth

Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--

Assorted characters of death and blight

Mixed ready to begin the morning right

Like the ingredients of a witches ' broth--

A snow-drop spider , a flower like a froth

And dead wings carried like a kite

What had that flower to do with being white

The wayside blue and innocent heal-all

What brought the kindred spider to that height

Then steered the white moth thither in the night

What but design of darkness to appall ?--

If design govern in a thing so small

In the poem titled Design , the spider is depicted along with two other outstanding elements : the heal-all and the moth . The color white is dominant in the whole poem , perhaps speaking of purity and innocence However , certain words like death and blight ' witches ' broth ' and darkness ' signify a deeper , more sinister undercurrent in the poem The reader is led to speculate what urged the spider to attack the moth and kill it , and what is the connection...