How does the speaker perceive the world in "A Noiseless Patient Spider," by Walt Whitman?

In Walt Whitman's poem, "A Noiseless Patient Spider," the
spider's world is seen as a microcosm of the "world at large"—the speaker's world.
Whitman's concentration on an aspect of nature it not at all unusual for this
poet.

The speaker watches a spider that he personifies: it
is "patient." He introduces this idea to describe how the spider works in his small
world on an isolated " href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/promontory">promontory." The
spider's patient focus is on throwing out his strands of webbing to connect to another
spot so that he can explore it. The constancy of his work is evident in the repetition
of the word "filament," and "ever unreeling them—ever tirelessly speeding
them."

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.

In
the next stanza, the speaker addresses his "Soul." He compares the work of the spider to
his own labors. Instead of throwing out filaments, however, the speaker—surrounded by
"oceans of space," as is the spider—notes that his Soul is throwing out its thoughts to
better understand the world: with the same sense of repetition that the spider displays,
in "ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing"—his thoughts until, like the spider, he
finds a way to connect the spheres with a bridge he has built from his mental
exploration of the world.

The speaker entreats his Soul to
continue its work, until its "gossamer thread you fling" (a thought tossed out), catches
"somewhere."

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And you, O my Soul, where you
stand,

Surrounded, surrounded, 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.

The parallel between
the spider and the man simply compares two situations that differ in dimension and the
physicality of the two "beings:" one an insect, the other a man; both face worlds to
them that are enormous in scope, and both are driven to understand the world of which
they are a part with tireless effort.