“Our souls sit close and silently within,
And their own web from their own entrails spin;
And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such,
That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch.”

—  John Dryden

Mariage à la Mode, Act ii, scene 1.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Our souls sit close and silently within, And their own web from their own entrails spin; And when eyes meet far off, …" by John Dryden?
John Dryden photo
John Dryden 196
English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century 1631–1700

Related quotes

Gloria Steinem photo
Gustave Flaubert photo
John Davies (poet) photo

“Much like a subtle spider which doth sit
In middle of her web, which spreadeth wide;
If aught do touch the utmost thread of it,
She feels it instantly on every side.”

John Davies (poet) (1569–1626) English poet, lawyer, and politician, born 1569

The Immortality of the Soul (c. 1594). Compare:
:"Our souls sit close and silently within / And their own webs from their own entrails spin; / And when eyes meet far off, our sense is such / That, spider-like, we feel the tenderest touch." John Dryden, Mariage à la Mode, act ii. sc. 1.;
:"The spider’s touch—how exquisitely fine!— / Feels at each thread, and lives along the line." Alexander Pope, Epistle i. line 217.

“The spider spinning his web for the unwary fly. The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield.”

Garrett Fort (1900–1945) screenwriter

Dracula, speaking to Harker at his castle
Dracula (1931)

Cornelia Funke photo
Marshall McLuhan photo

“Each of our senses makes its own space, but no sense can function in isolation. Only as sight relates the touch, or kinaesthesia, or sound, can the eye see.”

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …

1970s, The argument: causality in the electric world (1973)

Fenton Johnson photo
John Keats photo

“Many have original minds who do not think it — they are led away by custom — Now it appears to me that almost any man may like the spider spin from his own inwards his own citadel.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds (February 19, 1818)
Letters (1817–1820)

Ezra Taft Benson photo

“some of the greatest battles will be fought within the silent chambers of your own soul.”

Ezra Taft Benson (1899–1994) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Melanie Joy photo

Related topics