Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Do you have a sense of what the speaker talks about in the last few lines, like when he mentions "seeking the spheres to connect them?" Does it create a visual picture in your head? Is it something you could describe, or is it more mysterious than that?
- Have you ever compared a part of your life to an animal’s, like Whitman does? When you see a dog or a cat, for example, do their actions remind you of the way humans act or think?
- Do you enjoy Whitman’s style? Do you miss the rhythm and the rhyme, or is this more freewheeling form exciting and moving for you?
- If the speaker says something about his soul, do you think he learns it from the spider? Or is this just a convenient way of explaining something he already knows? Put another way: do you feel like there’s a sense of discovery in this poem?