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.
Symbols & Motifs
The Siren Song
As the nautilus, a “ship of pearl […] / [s]ails” (Lines 1-2), it travels “gulfs enchanted” (Line 5). These waters are beautiful—but also potentially dangerous. Populated by mythic sea-people, traditionally ruled by the god Triton, the sea is also where a “Siren sings” (Line 5). In Greco-Roman mythology, the siren is a figure who is part human and part fish. Eventually, sirens became synonymous with sinister mermaids, or as Holmes’s speaker notes, “cold sea-maids” (Line 7). Sirens were said to lure sailors to their deaths with an irresistible song. They are featured prominently in the story of Jason and the Argonauts and in Homer’s The Odyssey. Here, Holmes’s speaker shows the symbolic ship of the nautilus is “wrecked” (Line 9) against the “coral reefs” (Line 6). Holmes uses the myth of the Siren to show one should not be guided by a seductive earthly song, but the “clearer note” (Line 25) of spiritual progress.
Church Architecture
Holmes deliberately uses references to churchly architecture to emphasize that one’s interior life should be crafted like a holy site, much as the nautilus crafts each chamber of its shell. Each phase of life is as sacred as the next. The chambers are described as having “irised ceiling[s]” (Line 14) and the largest chamber comprises a “vast” space (Line 33) in the shape of a “dome” (Line 33). These descriptions call to mind cathedrals or vaulted churches. Further, the speaker feels that God suggests—through the nautilus—that the “stately mansions” (Line 29) of the soul will have “shining archway[s]” (Line 19) in its “temple” (Line 32), which lead away from the “low-vaulted past” (Line 31). This clarifies the nautilus as an object inspiring worship and helps the speaker to turn inward to consider their “soul” (Line 29) in the same holy vein.
“Shut Thee From Heaven”
The curious phrasing of the conclusion of the poem, in which the speaker notes, “Let each new temple, nobler than the last / Shut thee from heaven, with a dome more vast” (Lines 32-33), can be confusing for some readers. It suggests the speaker’s soul should be kept from any afterlife, barred from heaven. However, a close reading of the earlier lines helps to extrapolate this important metaphor. In the third stanza, the speaker describes how the nautilus “build[s] up [the] idle door” (Line 20) from chamber to chamber. Once the nautilus has grown into its new chamber, it doesn’t have use for the last. When discussing the soul, the speaker uses this reference to discuss how the soul will be protected by its striving to be noble. By creating a “new temple” (Line 32) as they move through each of life’s stages, the speaker grows closer and closer to the Heaven they seek. This process of endeavoring to be noble, the speaker believes, will continue “till thou at length are free” (Line 34). At last, an “outgrown shell” (Line 35) will be left behind on earth, as paradise is attained.
