"How to Do a Close Reading" response

I thought it was interesting how this article gave you the definition of a close reading and then gave you a short passage to read. By breaking down the parts of the passage, the article helps the reader realize what things he should be looking out for while reading. For example, the article describes many different literary devises that are used in the passage: metaphor (spider's web becomes a universe), personification (the spider has human qualities: "owner," "fingering her guidelines"), and diction (of the western setting- "gulch," "arroyo," "buffalo grass.") Then the article tells the reader to ask questions about the patterns in the passage. I think this is a very helpful tool in looking at small details in depth and coming to a conculusion about what the passage as a whole means (inductive reasoning). Then, the article tells you one interperatation of the passage: "Eiseley is suggesting that our universie is also finite, that our ideas are circumscribed, and that beyond the limits of our universe there might be phenomena as fully beyond our ken." This is a pretty detailed conclusion that shows the reader where each part of it came from. For example, the article shows how the word "circumscribed" is used in the passage: "The spider was circumscribed by spider ideas." This shows the reader the meaning of the connection between our ideas and the spider's ideas.