The Chambered Nautilus

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1858

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“The Chambered Nautilus” is organized into five stanzas with seven lines each. The rhyme and meter are a variant of rhyme royal, invented by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century. Rhyme royal uses 10-syllable lines with ABABBCC rhyme pattern. Holmes varied this to AABBBCC, and used a mix of pentameter, trimeter, and hexameter in his verse. The trimeter lines in each stanza often deal with revelation or surprise and the shortness of them makes them stand out. The mixed length of the lines could also mimic waves of the sea. This form fits the idea of the journey of growth from expectation to surprise as the nautilus moves from a mysterious and mythic object to a “frail tenant” (Line 12), to the builder of churchlike chambers, into a messenger from God.

Ode

Holmes uses the form of the ode, which is a formal lyric poem, often ceremonious, that addresses or celebrates an idea, person, place, or thing. Greek odes were usually public poems that celebrated an athlete’s prowess or victory, whereas traditional English odes were more pensive and philosophical. They vary in stanza form, rhyme, and meter. It was popular for the Romantic poets to write odes to address an intense emotion such as melancholy or love or to celebrate an object, the contemplation of which leads to a personal revelation. Holmes is working in this vein and uses the nautilus shell both as an object of beauty and a way to discuss the development of faith over time, through the progression of its enlarging chambers. Choosing the ode format allows Holmes to hint to his audience that he is similarly addressing some of the themes explored by the Romantics regarding immortality and mutability—and using a nature metaphor to do so. This allows the audience to anticipate and be receptive to the metaphysical questions at the end of the poem.

Personification

Initially, the chambered nautilus appears as an object—a “ship of pearl” (Lines 1, 9). It seems like an artwork, or in tandem with Greek allusions—a myth. Yet, in the description of the empty shell, the nautilus is suddenly humanized, given the pronoun “[h]e” (Line 18) and described with the possessive “his” (Line 21). Later in the poem, the nautilus becomes an intimate of the speaker’s, with the “he” (Line 18) shifting to “thee” (Line 21). This serves two purposes. First, it invests the reader in the activity of the nautilus as a builder of excellent, ever-enlarging chambers. This helps us care about his toil. Further, however, it calls attention to the speaker’s connection to the nautilus, which moves beyond myth into something sacred. This in turn allows the reader to believe that the speaker would indeed receive a personalized “heavenly message” (Line 22) via the nautilus for it is no longer a “frail tenant” (Line 12) that once lived, but “a voice that sings” (Line 28) urging the speaker onward.