This site works outward from two well known poems, both treating spiders, and both composed at roughly the same time, Dickinson’s "A spider sewed at night" and Whitman’s "A Noiseless Patient Spider" (1860s for Dickinson; 1850s - 1860s for Whitman). At a fundamental level, these poems treat the spider-artist: that is, they are poems that explore the nature of creativity, artistry, and audience. The spider weaves its web, mysteriously, out of itself while taking sustenance from all that it ingests. This site traces a web of connectedness surrounding each of these poems.