20 pages • 40 minutes read
Oliver Wendell HolmesThe Chambered Nautilus
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1858A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Spiritual Growth While Fully Living Life
In “The Chambered Nautilus” the speaker urges that we pay attention to the transitory nature of life while still holding onto faith. The speaker suggests that faith can be honored, but not at the expense of living life fully, which must be done despite difficult circumstances.
At the beginning of the poem, the beautiful and adventurous nautilus is seduced by “the Siren [who] sings” (Line 5) in “gulfs enchanted” (Line 5). A pearly “ship” (Line 1), the nautilus is “wrecked” on the “coral reefs” (Line 6). Here, the nautilus represents someone who gives in to temptation.
When they acquire the shell, the speaker first regards it scientifically, focusing on the growing “lustrous coil” (Line 16) of its spiral chambers that have been exposed. At first, when they imagine the creature inside the nautilus, they see it as mundane. The nautilus was a “frail tenant” (Line 12) with a “dim dreaming life” (Line 11) who “shaped his growing shell” (Line 12) in “silent toil” (Line 15).
This opinion shifts when the speaker begins to realize the work of the nautilus was completed “year after year” (Line 15) with diligence. The nautilus made the place it lived beautiful on the inside. This was achieved not only through patience but also by embracing change, leaving “the past year’s dwelling for the new” (Line 18). As such, each “shining archway” (Line 19) that leads to a more expansive home in which the nautilus “stretch[es]” (Line 21) to become comfortable emphasizes that slow growth is as important as rapid change.
This message—for the speaker—is a spiritual one. Rather than focus on transformative miracles, one should instead embrace that the “soul” (Line 30) needs to “[b]uild […] more stately mansions” (Line 29) as it goes through life. The intent should be that “each temple [becomes] nobler than the last” (Line 32). This can only be achieved by embracing one’s current status, accepting that life by its nature is “unresting” (Line 35) and leaving behind the “low-vaulted past” (Line 31).
In this way, Holmes’s speaker suggests that each life, no matter how small, can be coated with pearl. If a person strives to make each moment well-lived, celebrating each chamber of existence, then they are “free” (Line 34) to enter the kingdom of Heaven.
Recovery After the Wreckage
While the most common ways to read “The Chambered Nautilus” involve discussions of Christian spirituality, science, and progress, the poem can also be read as a template of the mental effect and recovery that occurs after an experience has left a person “wrecked” (Line 9). Due to his medical studies, Holmes was interested in mental health and wrote about psychological healing, and one may be able to read the poem as a metaphor (comparison between two unrelated things used for dramatic or poetic effect) offering advice about what to do when emotional disaster occurs.
In the beginning of the poem, the nautilus is off on an adventure in a seemingly blissful or “enchanted” (Line 5) space. The sea in which it swims is “unshadowed” (Line 2) and there is a “sweet summer wind” (Line 4). This is a lure, however, a cover for the song of “the Siren” (Line 5). The nautilus doesn’t expect the dangerous “coral reefs” (Line 6). The community of “sea-maids” (Line 7) who could offer a warning, turn a “cold” (Line 7) shoulder, letting the nautilus crash. Metaphorically, this is a description of an unexpected, tragic event.
Afterward, the nautilus is described as unable to move, “[i]ts webs of living gauze no more unfurl” (Line 8). This serves as a strong metaphor for someone who feels shattered emotionally and retreats inward, an emotional deadening. The home in which they used to have a “dim dreaming life” (Line 11) is torn apart and any progress “the frail tenant” (Line 12) has made seems to have been destroyed. This suggests someone who feels incapacitated and thinks of themselves as unable to achieve prior dreams.
Yet, the speaker points out that the nautilus has had to make a new home before. In fact, “year after year” (Line 15) new chambers are constructed and the nautilus “stretched” (Line 21) into them, shutting off the door of the “past year’s dwelling for the new” (Line 18). This fact lifts the fog of depression, providing a “clearer note” (Line 25).
The cure to the illness of discovering the “gulfs [are not] enchanted” (Line 5) is to remember one’s capacity to create “more stately mansions” (Line 29) and “leave thy low-vaulted past” (Line 31). This dedication to the soul as a regenerative “new temple” (Line 32) eventually “free[s]” (Line 34) the “frail” (Line 12) soul from the “unresting sea” (Line 35), or the experience that caused their original trauma.
Poetic Response to William Wordsworth
In “The Chambered Nautilus,” Holmes’s speaker hears “from [the nautilus’] dead lips a clearer note […] / than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!” (Lines 26-27). This line shows that contemplating the chambers of the nautilus causes the speaker to recall another famous poem’s sentiments regarding the intensity of work and its connection to spirituality, which also uses metaphors of the sea. Here, the last stanza of “The Chambered Nautilus” directly addresses “The World is Too Much With Us” (See: Further Reading & Resources), a sonnet written half a century earlier by English poet William Wordsworth.
In the 1802 sonnet, Wordsworth’s speaker worries that human appreciation of the natural world is being overtaken by the rise of Industrialism. The speaker sees “[l]ittle [...] in Nature that is ours” (Wordsworth, William. “The World Is Too Much With Us.” 1807. Poetry Foundation. Line 3) and frets that people are “out of tune” (Wordsworth Line 8) with the “[s]ea that bares her bosom to the moon” (Wordsworth Line 5). People are no longer emotionally connected to the physical world around them. The speaker wonders if it would be better to be a “Pagan” (Wordsworth Line 10), who, looking out on the ocean would “have glimpses that would make [them] less forlorn” (Wordsworth Line 12). They believe that they might experience something magical, such as “hear[ing] old Triton blow his wreathèd horn” (Wordsworth Line 14) rather than engage in so-called Christian progress.
By borrowing Wordsworth’s exact description, Holmes connects his speaker with Wordsworth’s and replies with a Christian-based alternative to this crisis of faith. Work, he contends, is necessary to achieve the next level of existence, but not the “[g]etting and spending” (Wordsworth Line 2) Wordsworth condemns. While Wordsworth feels “we lay waste our powers” (Wordsworth Line 2) in the present, Holmes’s speaker suggests building “more stately mansions” (Line 29) within oneself to combat the feeling of being overwhelmed. The advice is to concentrate on the building of “each new temple, [making it] nobler than the last” (Line 32). Holmes’s speaker acknowledges “life’s unresting sea” (Line 35)—the same one Wordsworth observes—but suggests that one must always strive for betterment like the nautilus. The use of Christian imagery and allusion (references to an object or subject that exists outside the text) with natural metaphor is purposefully used to respond to Wordsworth’s discussion of Paganism.
