Often authors will leave hidden messages in their writing. The poem, "Bruce and the Spider," by Bernard Barton, leaves the message to never quit trying and to be patient. If you keep trying, you will succeed. In this poem, Robert Bruce went into battle and lost six times. He went to his cottage and while he was there, he saw a spider in the corner. The spider was trying to spin a web. While trying to spin a web, the spider failed six times, but he didn't quit. He tried again and finally succeeded on the seventh try. After seeing the spider spins his web, Robert Bruce was convinced to go out into battle and try again. The message in this poem can be proven in specific lines of, "Bruce and the Spider."

Two of the lines in this poem show that the spider, even though it was...