Patient as a spider

Posted by E. on December 02, 1999

In Reply to: Patient as a spider posted by Denise McComb on December 01, 1999

: My daughter has to write a paragraph for school due tomorrow on idioms. The idiom she has been given to write on is "patient as a spider." She has to write whether or not it is a real phrase. I have never heard of this phrase before. Has anyone ever heard of this one before? Any help would be appreciated.

A noiseless patient spider

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.

Walt Whitman