Night Spider’s Advice

by Joyce Sidman, from her book of night poems, Dark Emperor

Build a frame
and stick to it,
I always say.
Life’s a circle.
Just keep going around.
Do your work, then
sit back and see
what falls in your lap.
Eat your triumphs,
eat your mistakes:
that way your belly
will always be full.
Use what you have.
Rest when you need to.
Dawn will come soon enough.
Someone has to remake
the world each night.
It might as well be you.

Photo credit Andy Langager

As we discussed in class:
Please post a comment explaining your favorite part of the poem and what you like about it. Read your classmates’ posts and comment on at least 2-3 of them before class next Thursday.

46 Replies to “Night Spider’s Advice”

  1. This poem is talking about how we shouldn’t give up on what we have planned for ourself maybe a long term goal or short term goal rather we should just push it forward and keep going till we succeed. My favorite part of the poem is “I always say. Life’s a circle. Just keep going around. Do your work, then sit back and see what falls in your lap.” I like this poem because it is encouraging me and motivating me that I would reach my goals and get what I always wanted. And the more hard work we put into what we want the better for us, and later on we would definitely see what we gained.

  2. My favorite part of The Night Spiders Advice is how much the spider relates to us, humans. “Eat your triumphs,
    eat your mistakes that way your belly will always be full.” Is a line that pops up to me because when you fail or make a mistake it should fill you just like a victory because you are learning from it and only growing to become better and to be thats the best triumph

    1. I do agree, although making mistakes is disappointing, learning from them is a reward in itself. We just don’t realize it because its overshadowed by our disappointment from the mistakes we made.

    2. I agree with this, learning to deal with mistakes and grow from them are very important tools in life. Learning to accept both your mistakes and triumphs allow us to always feel motivated and for filled.

    3. I completely agree, all the days we have to learn something new, everything adds up, feeding us with new experiences.
      also I like the way as the author find to express this idea, is a good metaphor.

  3. My favorite part of this poem is the ending where it states “Someone has to remake the world each night. It might as well be you.” In my understanding is do what’s best for yourself at the end of the day. The poem seems to grasp ervyday human life and how we operate. It also states how we must accept our achievements as well as our failures, which is the only way we learn to truly grow as individuals.

    1. there is soething interesting that I would like to mention, as you say this poem shows ” the human life and how we operate” , which is true, in fact is not only in us how it works, all organism and life move as a cycle, I don’t undestand completely the meaning of life but is true that we always keep moving and going in circles to wake up in a new day.

    2. I agree with what you said about how we must accept our achievements as well as our failures. That was something big I as well took away from the poem. Like you said that this is the only way to truly grow. I see it as rewarding yourself for your accomplishment. But also sitting back and analyzing your failures.

  4. My favorite part of this poem is
    “Someone has to remake the world each night.
    It might as well be you”.

    The reason this is my favorite because it reflects a realistic and honest attitude for life in general. No matter what happens, no matter what situations or roadblocks, live your life each day in its fullest and in the moment. But to remember that you can always change your world, or the world in general, and never to doubt that.

  5. I love the part that goes, “Use what you have. Rest when you need to.” It reminds me to be resourceful and rely on not just myself, but others. It also reminds me that I don’t have to do it all in one day, and that I’m a human who gets tired emotionally and physically, and resting isn’t a weakness but a way to heal and grow!

    1. I agree with you and how we are human that needs time for everything and we might not be able to process things and get it at once’s but we can keep it going by trying hard each day till we get there I love that.

    2. I love this comment, as I would have never associated this part of the poem, “use what you have” with the perspective of outside sources of help rather than within. To interpret this as human need others to help them and that no person is alone in this world, is such an interesting take.

    3. you are right, this phrase confront me, because I am not a patient person, anyway I have to remind me that all the days we have new oportunities to continue and start again.

  6. I think poem is saying that no matter how hard life gets, as along you are doing what you supposed to do the bad Times will come to an end. nothing should start of great but as long as you dont give up the goods will come. and there a idioms in Chinese called ”先苦后甜“ which just mean first is sour then its sweet just like life is sometimes.

  7. The most notable part of the poem to me was the last two sentences. “Someone has to remake the world each night. It might as well be you.” The metaphor is obviously in relation to a spider creating a web and a humans capability to contribute to the world, I found this very clever.

    1. I agree completely. It is a beautiful outlook on humanity to describe such hopefulness. To put to world in the hands of the individual and to allow children to dream of endless possibilities to make the world a better place is appealing to any person.

  8. My favorite lines in the poem is “Build a frame
    and stick to it,” because like spiders. we should also make our own plan (spiderweb!) . Spiders see where are they going to make their web and know what types of sucesses anf failures will it get. Like us humans, we make a plan, but we also have to get successes and failures and not doubt our plan.

  9. “It might as well be you”, is the most significant part of this poem. As originally a children’s poem, the poet alters the perspective thus changing the meaning of the poem. This poem is a great beginner poem for both children and adults as it uses metaphors to describe a spider’s work and then puts the reader is the spider’s world to describe the deeper meaning the poem represents.

  10. Hello everyone, my favorite part is “Build a frame
    and stick to it” when I read it, I believe the author wants to mean that we must to make a plan and persist until you achieve something, it will be the base that support. For me the advise means don’t give up and be patient, do what you have to do and wait for the results.
    I believe that I am building my frame yet, going around and weaving my way.

  11. My favorite part of the poem is when it says “Eat your triumphs, eat your mistakes: that way your belly will always be full.” The reason why I picked this line from the poem is that it talks about when making mistakes will push you to keep going on till you reach your goal.

  12. My favorite part of the poem was “Life’s a circle.
    Just keep going around. Do your work, then sit back and see what falls in your lap.” This line motivates us to work hard and achieve our goals which will help us to become successful in life.

  13. My favorite part of the poem is “Do your work, then sit back and see what falls in your lap.” I like this quote people it reminds me of life. You have to do the work to see the accomplishments that u could receive. I like how this poem can be interpreted in so many ways but to me, I would connect it to life.

  14. My favorite part of the poem is ” Someone has to remake the world each night. It might as well be you”. This is because I like how it refers to how people need to pick themselves up and do the best they can. No matter what happens, there’s shouldn’t be any time to feel sorry about yourself. Pick yourself and be successful.

  15. I really enjoyed these two lines in the poem: “Eat your triumphs, eat your mistakes: that way your belly will always be full.” & “Rest when you need to.” as they remind the reader to be kind to themselves, let go of their negative feelings, especially the ones towards themselves and nourish themselves to their best ability. I believe that on cannot truly be of help to their community and the world until they learn how to love and help themselves and so these thoughts are quite heart-warming to read for me.

  16. While reading this poem the most part that stood out to me was the last two lines, “Someone has to remake the world each night. It might as well be you.” This had held so much meaning and had brought a great ending to the whole meaning of the poem’s metaphor. The reason these were my favorite lines was because it expressed such a realistic and genuine view of how life is. That there will always be something going on in your life, whether those obstacles are big or small, and even if at the end of the day “it is what it is”. To live your moments to the fullest, no matter what happens, because you can always change the world you live in and learn from it.

  17. this is my favorite line in the poem “Life’s a circle.
    Just keep going around.”. I choose this line Because to me it’s mean doesn’t what you do bad or good life never stop. so not better to think about past and keep move forward

  18. A big part that i took from this poem is that no matter what you have to keep going. Sometimes in life you are going to fall and sometimes you are going to succeed. You should congratulate yourself on your accomplishments, but you should also humble yourself by your loses.

  19. I Love the part where its said that life is a circle and we should keep going around because makes a lot of sense to me we have to go around back and ford to get to the place we want to be like life is not easy but we have to take care of ourselves and work to get to the point we want to be.

Leave a Reply