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 |
| 5 |
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! |
|
| 10 |
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! |
| 15 |
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, |
|
| 20 |
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! |
| 25 |
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:— |
|
Build
thee more stately mansions, O my soul, |
|
| 30 |
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, |
| 35 |
Leaving
thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! |
Making Meanings
The Chambered Nautilus
1. Review your Quickwrite notes. Compare your thoughts with what the speaker of the poem thinks as he looks at the nautilus.
2. Stanza 3 describes the ways the nautilus grows. The poet uses a metaphor comparing the nautilus to a person who changes homes. What details describe how this happens year after year?
3. Step by step, describe the extended metaphor. What are the “stately mansions” (line 29), the “low-vaulted past” (line 31), “each new temple” (line 32), the “outgrown shell” (line 35), and the “unresting sea” (line 35)?
4. “The Chambered Nautilus” is one of the most enduring poems in American literature. (Abraham Lincoln is said to have known it by heart.) Why do you think this poem has endured? Do you think it will still be read one hundred years from now? Be sure to give your reasons.
5. Did you find this poem more optimistic than Bryant’s “Thanatopsis”? Why or why not?
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