The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Stanza One Verbatim
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main,-The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where cold sea maids rise to sun their
streaming hair.
Stanza Two Verbatim
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Its web of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wreaked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lives revealed,-Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Stanza Three Verbatim
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the
old no more.
Stanza Four Verbatim
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Thanks for the heavenly message brought by
thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a
voice that sings:--
Stanza Five Verbatim
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting
sea!
Stanza One Analysis
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
We should want to be as the nautilus is
throughout the expanse of our lives.
The nautilus is not afraid to take chances if they
could better its life.
It makes the best of the beautiful yet dangerous
world it lives in.
Nothing gets in its way.
Stanza Two Analysis
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Even when the nautilus has died, its work and
beauty live on within its broken shell.
The shell is what it has worked to improve every
day of its life until the end.
Stanza Three Analysis
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
As time passed, the nautilus built on, adding to
and improving its previous works.
As one beautiful environment was completed, it
began building a bigger and better one, leaving
the old behind.
Stanza Four Analysis
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
For these examples we should thank the
nautilus, whose life was devoted to labor, only
to die in the end.
Even after death, its shell delivers the message
of how we should live our lives.
We should keep the example in mind.
Stanza Five Analysis
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
We must make ourselves better people as
every moment passes by.
Pay close attention to the present and future,
not so much to the past, only try to improve.
If you work to improve, your life will be bettered
until you die.
Perhaps after that, your example will be
remembered and taken on my someone new.
Aspects of Romanticism
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
• The Chambered Nautilus references Greek
Mythology, such as the sirens, Triton’s horn, and
seamaids.
• The poet sees poetry as the highest
expression of the imagination as shown in Line
1: “This is a ship of pearl, which, poets feign.”
• The nautilus’ life is an adventure.
• The poet looks to the nautilus to discover the
best way to live, using a parable.
• There is no mention of a god, the nautilus
controls his own life.
Aspects of Romanticism II
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
• There is no mention of a god, the nautilus
controls his own life.
• The poem displays nature’s beauty, the
nautilus shell, as a path to development.
• The entire poem places faith in experience.
• The nautilus champions freedom and the
worth of individuality.
Last Notes
The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
• A nautilus is a sea creature living in a spiraling
shell.
• Within the poem is an extended metaphor
comparing the nautilus to a ship.
• The poet wants to live a successful life.
• The poem switches from talking to the reader
in stanzas 1-3 to talking with the nautilus in
stanza 4.
El fin