1. This poem is an appropriate choice for students because the poem presents a speaker who, like students, listens to a lecturer. From the first four lines, describe the astronomer's lecture.
   
2. How does the speaker of the poem respond to the lecture? Notice the grammatically ambiguous wording of ll. 3-4. How does the grammar in those places reflect the position and feelings of the speaker?
   
3. Why does the speaker go outside? How does what he encounters outside contrast with the astronomer's lecture? Why does the speaker say "mystical moist night-air"? Why does he look in "perfect silence"?
   
4. What does this poem suggest about the powers of nature? Is the astronomer's lecture a type of "art"? If so, what does this poem suggest about the relationship between art and nature?
   
5. In your textbook there is a clear interpretation of the differences between the first part and the second part of this poem in, for example, the line length (with the numbers of syllables in each line being 1) 9, 14, 18, 23; and 2) 14, 14,13,10) and their respective patterns (e.g. repetition of "When" in the first part, and the iambic pentameter in the last line of the second part) . Think more about the effects of these differences. How do the different patterns here support the ideas about the differences conveyed in the poem between astronomy and nature? (the technique)
6. Keep the general ideas (sense) in mind, find out more about the sound effects of this poem (e.g. its use of assonance, alliteration and open vowels). (the technique)

• What is the main idea that Whitman expresses in this poem?

• Why has the speaker in line 6 "broke off a twig with a certain number of leaves upon it, and twined around it a little moss"?     How does this relate to the main idea?

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"A Noiseless Patient Spider" (Study Guide)

Questions for 1.Understanding & Analysis;  2. Application & Wild Association

1. What does the first stanza suggest about the spider? What activity is the spider engaged in? Keeping in mind that activity, why is the second line so much longer than the first line?
2. The second stanza implies that the speaker is like the spider. In what ways is the speakers soul like the spider? What activity does his soul do? How is that activity like the workings of the spider?
3. The first stanza presents the vacant vast surrounding encompassing the spider, while the second stanza presents measureless oceans of space around the soul. What other similarities and parrallels do you see between the two stanzas?
4. Figurative language: With the use of apostrophe(1ycIak), the poet talks to (and personifies) his own soul and compares it to the spider. What are the effects of the repetition of his apostrophizing the soul ("O my soul")? (the technique)
5. Sound effects: Besides the use of open vowels, we get alliteration as well as repetition of the words such as "mark," "filament," "ever" and "them" in the first stanza. What are the effects of these repetitions of words and the sound pattern? (the technique)
6. Form: the pattern of free verse depends a lot on repetition (with variation) of different poetic elements. Why are there not as many repetitions in the second stanza? From stanza one to two, we see similar kind of variation of line length (which gets longer and longer). What effects are achieved here?(the technique)
   
   

Application & Wild Association

1. If you were going to compare yourself to an animal, what animal would you choose? Why?
   
2. The song "Sound of Silence" can be seen as another search for inner soul--by talking to darkness as an old friend.  Please pay attention to the contrasts in imagery between darkness and light, silence and sound.  The phrase "sound of silence" is an oxymoron; can you explain why?

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(External Links)Whitman, Modern American Poetry, Study Questions, "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer," Introduction to Literature 98': Poetry III: Art and Nature

(External Links)Whitman, Modern American Poetry, Study Questions, "I Saw in Louisinan a Live-OakGrowing," Introduction to Literature 98': Poetry I: Family Relationships

(External Links)Whitman, Modern American Poetry, Study Questions, "A Noiseless Patient Spider," Introduction to Literature 98': Poetry II: Personal Identity