Reflection: Holmes and The Nautilus

   The Fireside poet that I chose to analyze was Oliver Wendell Holmes.  This was one of his most well known works that came about first in February 1858(Love 1).  The Chambered Nautilus is a poem rightly stated about a chambered nautilus.  A chambered nautilus is a deep sea creature that resides in the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans that is a shelled mollusk.  It's shell is exponentially one of its most influencing components of the poem.  The mollusk has a shell that never ceases to grow, only until death.  The mollusk lives within the spiraling shell(Love 1).

   In this this first stanza below, the ship Holmes is referring to is the mollusks shell, made of pearl.  It refers to the idea that the mollusk is sailing the unshadowed main, or the sea where the sirens sings, deep within the ocean.

"THIS is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, 

Sails the unshadowed main,— 

The venturous bark that flings 

On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings 

In gulfs enchanted, where the siren sings, 5

And coral reefs lie bare, 

Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.(lines 1-7)"

   Oliver Wendell Holmes uses the presence of nature within his poem.  This is clearly an example of a romanticism style of writing because transcendentalists, or those who write in the romanticism style, use nature within their work.  Holmes paid a great attention to detail within this short poem.  He explains that over this mollusk's life, he has built up this magnificent shell and that when he died, he left for the see.  This can be seen in the lines below.

"Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl; 

Wrecked is the ship of pearl! 

And every chambered cell, 10

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!(lines 8-14)"

   This chambered nautilus built up this shell, this life; persona and soul. This shell will always remain even when the nautilus is gone.  It is it's ship that witnessed life and death.  That shell is a remnant of the unsailed main. Even when its gone, the shell will always remain.  This shell is what the nautilus represented; the undying symbol of what you have done.  This is an application of nature to show any reader how to live a better life which is the main message or task that romanticists were "intending" to do.  I think the message of this poem/ literary work is to keep building your own shell.  Help build those strong coils within your life and do things that you want to always be remembered by everyone.  Do your life justice.  Do the good things, the greater good.  Sail your pearly white ship until you reach your destination, and once you sink, make sure that your life has been worth sinking. On a lighter and much simpler note, live the best life you can possibly live because life is short and you are going to die, it is just a matter of time.

Love, C. "'The Chambered Nautilus'." In Barney, Brett, and Lisa Paddock, eds. Encyclopedia of American Literature: The Age of Romanticism and Realism, 1816–1895, vol. 2, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EAmL0443&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 7, 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. <http://www.bartleby.com/42/801.html>.