In the two poems, "A Noiseless Patient Spider" and "Myth", the poets use differing grammatical and discoursive forms such as first and third person, narration technique including dialogue and first person storytelling. It is through these methods that the authors are able to express their ideas to us in their own specific ways, manipulating mood, tone, perspective, enviornment, etc. They can give us a broader perspective utilizing third person, or they can bar us from the mind of other characters limiting us to the main character through first person. These methods give stories their own unique feel, as we shall see how. .
In "A Noiseless Patient Spider", Whitman uses a first person perspective to communicate the story to us. Through first person, we become Whitmans observer, watching the spider with him and through him. Our perception is limited to Whitman himself, observing the spider in it's patient work, analyzing it with his mind. For instance we are not allowed to see things through the spiders eyes, as it weaves away, unbeknowist as to what it is thinking or that which motivates it to do it's patient work, we only see Whitman's idea. Perhaps the spider is simply following impulses that drive it, and it hungers realizing the web to be the method for which to satiate that hunger. In essence we are perceptually restricted in a realistic way. I believe this connects us more intimately to the character in which we view the world from, and serves to simulate reality more accurately than other methods such as third person. .
Now, when we look at "Myth", we are expanded to a third person point of .
view. The contrast to Whitman is noticeable, and the story feels different to us. This is because we perceive the story not from Oedipus, nor from the Sphinx, but through the eyes of an invisible observer. The feeling is no longer personal, but transient and God-like. The poem takes the form of a social dialogue between two individuals, a discourse between the Sphinx and Oedipus.