The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes
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ANALYSIS ASSESSMENT!
Oliver Wendell Holmes
• 1809-1894
• He went to law school, but
then decided to go to medical
school.
• He came up with the word:
anesthesia (without feeling)
• He founded the magazine The
Atlantic Monthly.
• He is remembered by his wit,
wordplay, and happy
disposition.
“The Chambered Nautilus”
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,-The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked 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 lies revealed,-Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
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.
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 wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that
sings:-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.
What is a Chambered Nautilus?
• Chambered Nautilus is a snail-like,
marine creature.
• It adds a chamber to its shell each
year to accommodate its growing
body.
• According to legend, a chambered
nautilus can sail while floating on
the water by hoisting up a
membrane.
• The inside of the shell has a pearly
look.
Voice & Speaker
• It is not clear who
• Voice:
the
speaker
is,
but
it
rd
~3 Person (only
is highly possible
use of the pronoun
that the speaker is a
He)
sailor (the poet)
Mood & Tone
• Mood (Atmosphere):
~Admiration
• Tone (of Voice):
~Reverence
• “This is the ship of pearl,
which, poets feign, / Sail the
unshadowed main,--”
• “Thanks for the heavenly
message brought by thee, /
Child of the wandering sea”
• “Build thee more stately
mansions, O my soul, / As the
swift seasons roll!”
Theme
• Subject: the growth of
the soul
• Theme: it is important for
people, as children of
Nature, to continue to
build a nobler, loftier,
more spiritual existence
during their lives; this
growth should continue
until death.
Poem Type & Form
• Romantic Poem
• The poet looks to the
nautilus (nature) to
discover the best way to
live, using a parable.
• The poem displays nature’s
beauty, the nautilus shell,
as a path to development.
• This poem has a regular meter &
rhyme scheme: the couplet (2 end
rhymes)
• Repeted Rhyme Scheme:
aabbbcc
Literary Elements
• Alliteration: the repitition of consonant sounds at the beginning
of words.
~ “sweet summer”
~ “dim dreaming life was wont to dwell”
• Apostrophe: a direct address to someon or something that is not
present.
~ “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,”
Literary Elements
• Allusion: a reference to, or representation of, a place, event,
literary work, myth, or work of art
~ “Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn; / While on mine
ear it rings,”
~ “In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,”
• Personification: giving human-like qualities to non-human like
things.
~ "dreaming life," its description as a "tenant," its stealing with
"soft step," its ability to stretch out in a home, and the notion
that it is a "child" with "lips."
Literary Elements
• Extended Metaphor: A comparison between two unlike
things that continues throughout a series of sentences in a
paragraph or lines in a poem.
~Comparison between the growth of the nautilus that
must "leave thy low-vaulted past" for a larger chamber to
the growth and spiritual development of the human soul.
Shifts in Tone
• No true shift in tone
• But there is a shift from talking to the
shell to talking to the soul at the last
stanza.
El fin