A Noiseless Patient Spider and Design

The poems “A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman and “Design” by Robert Frost are both ambiguous; they can be interpreted in many ways. In Frost’s poem, he questions God by using the contrast of life and death. He also shows that in order for the spider to live, its prey must die. Whitman’s poem demonstrates a quiet spider creating a web. In addition he uses a spider to illustrate a person's soul showing a relationship between two people.
Whitman’s poem entitled “A noiseless Patient Spider” can be interpreting in two ways. The first interpretation is the quiet spider creates a web and a person is observing it. “A noiseless patient spider”(1) refers to the peaceful spider. The spider is alone and patient, “I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated” (2). The spider is away from human interference and is looking for a quiet place to start creating its web, “Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding” (3). The repet...