The Chambered Nautilus
THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,Sails the unshadowed main,--The venturous bark that flingsOn the sweet summer wind its purpled wingsIn 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 toilThat 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 bornThan ever Triton blew from wreathed hornWhile 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!
Words in this poem
- venturous a.
- Daring; bold; hardy; fearless; venturesome; adveturous; as, a venturous soldier. [Aphetic form of OE. aventurous. See Adventurous, Venture, n.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
- streaming a.
- Sending forth streams.
- unfurl v. t.
- To loose from a furled state; to unfold; to expand; to open or spread; as, to unfurl sails; to unfurl a flag. [1st pref. un- + furl.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- irised a.
- Having colors like those of the rainbow; iridescent. Holmes. [See Iris.]
- sunless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the sun or its rays; shaded; shadowed.
- crypt n.
- A vault wholly or partly under ground; especially, a vault under a church, whether used for burial purposes or for a subterranean chapel or oratory. [L. crypta vault, crypt, Gr. Crot, Crotto.]
- stole n.
- A long, loose garment reaching to the feet. [AS. stole, L. stola, Gr. stall. See Stall.]
- archway n.
- A way or passage under an arch.
- forlorn a.
- Deserted abandoned; lost. [OE., p.p. of forlesen to lose utterly, AS. forleósan (p.p. forloren); pref. for- + leósan (in comp.) to lose; cf. D. verliezen to lose, G. verlieren, Sw. förlor]
- clearer n.
- One who, or that which, clears.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Chambered Nautilus is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes — Volume 06 Poems from the Breakfast Table Series, Project Gutenberg ebook #7393; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Chambered Nautilus, in Poems from the Breakfast-Table Series (1858), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #7393, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/holmes-breakfast-table-poems/the-chambered-nautilus.html, id L23555.
Form and metre
The Chambered Nautilus is 35 lines in 5 stanzas of 7 lines each. Every stanza rhymes AABBBCC. This poem did not settle on a metre of its own; the book it comes from is in iambic tetrameter.
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBBCC feignA · mainA · flingsB · wingsB · singsB · bareC · hairC
- 2 AABBBCC unfurlA · pearlA · cellB · dwellB · shellB · revealedC · unsealedC
- 3 AABBBCC toilA · coilA · grewB · newB · throughB · doorC · moreC
- 4 AABBBCC theeA · seaA · forlornB · bornB · hornB · ringsC · singsC
- 5 AABBBCC soulA · rollA · pastB · lastB · vastB · freeC · seaC
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Sails the unshadowed main,-- | 6 | ······ |
| The venturous bark that flings | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings, | 10 | ··˘/˘··/˘· |
| And coral reefs lie bare, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair. | 12 | ·········/˘· |
| Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; | 10 | ···/˘···˘/ |
| Wrecked is the ship of pearl! | 6 | ······ |
| And every chambered cell, | 7 | ·/˘˘/˘· |
| Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Before thee lies revealed,-- | 6 | ····˘/ |
| Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed! | 12 | ·/˘/˘··/˘·˘/ |
| Year after year beheld the silent toil | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| That spread his lustrous coil; | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Still, as the spiral grew, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| He left the past year's dwelling for the new, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Stole with soft step its shining archway through, | 10 | ·····/˘/·· |
| Built up its idle door, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more. | 12 | ············ |
| Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Child of the wandering sea, | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| Cast from her lap, forlorn! | 6 | ····˘/ |
| From thy dead lips a clearer note is born | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn | 9 | ·/˘/˘···· |
| While on mine ear it rings, | 6 | ······ |
| Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:-- | 12 | ············ |
| Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| As the swift seasons roll! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Leave thy low-vaulted past! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Let each new temple, nobler than the last, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| Till thou at length art free, | 6 | ······ |
| Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! | 12 | /˘··/···˘/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.