Reflection Blog- The Chambered Nautilus

I picked The Chambered Nautilus to read as my poem and I really liked this poem because it was really short and pretty simple to read. From what I understand, this poem is about a little sea creature that grows and grows constantly changing its shell. This creature is called a nautilus, and throughout this poem Oliver Wendell Holmes interprets this creature in a way that allows it to represent a number of things. Also, in this poem we learn that this nautilus is being told by a heavenly voice to move from its old shell into one that is better (Holmes 18). By talking about this "heavenly message", Oliver Wendell Holmes is writing according to the normal pattern used in the 19th century, which involves observing nature in order to become a better person (Huff 5). Many different people have different reasons for what this nautilus represents, but I think that having it represent life is a really cool way to look at it. In this poem, the nautilus is constantly changing and moving on to better things which I think can be compared to the way people live today. For example, people are changing and growing all the time, just as the nautilus is doing in this poem. In this poem I also noticed many references to Greek mythology, and then when I read Randall Huff's literary criticism he mentioned the many references Holmes made to Greek mythology. For example, in line 5 Holmes says

In gulfs enchanted, where the sirens sing, and coral reefs lie bare, where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair (Holmes 5-7).

Sirens are creatures in Greek mythology that sing and lure men onto their island, and the "cold sea-maids" is a reference to mermaids (Huff 2). I think that Oliver Wendell Holmes used a creature of the sea to write this poem about because it is very natural for a nautilus to change and grow, and I think that is a theme in this poem.

I think that this poem represents the Romanticism period in many ways. First off, I think that Oliver Wendell Holmes was pretty descriptive in this poem. I think this was a relatively short poem, but for the length of it I think there is quite a bit of detail. For example, in line 4 Holmes says "On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings" and again in line 12 when he says "As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell" (Holmes 4, 12). I know we have read stories that are much more descriptive than this one, but I think that in comparison to length this poem includes a lot of descriptions. Also, I think this poem belongs in the Romanticism period because of the references to nature and then using those references to teach a life lesson in a creative way. Oliver Wendell Holmes took a boring nautilus and made it into a metaphor for the human soul, and he did so in a way that is so timeless that people can still learn from this poem today.

Huff, Randall. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." The Facts On File Companion to American Poetry, vol. 1. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CPAP0070&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 8, 2011).

Holmes, Oliver W. "801. The Chambered Nautilus. Oliver Wendell Holmes. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 07 Dec. 2011.