Reflection: A Fireside Poem

The poem I chose was called "The Chambered Nautilus" written by Oliver Wendell Holmes.

This poem could be interpreted in many different ways, and it can have different meanings to different people. This poem's main subject is a sea creature called a Nautilus. This nautilus lives inside a shell, and the shell changes and grows over time. Oliver Wendell Holmes uses a metaphor between the shell of a nautilus and the human soul. The speaker of the poem says that he hears a voice singing a heavenly message (lines 29-35). The heavenly message was:

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!

I think that this can be interpreted in many different ways. I think that life, like the nautilus shell, will also grow and change. I think that this message is encouraging people to be themselves and that it is okay to change. It is saying that people changing is a part of nature.

This poem has a lot of different examples to show that it belonged in the Romanticism period. The Romanticism period was full of creativity. This poem was very creative. It involved a lot of nature, just like other writings of the Romanticism period. Nature is a very creative subject. Oliver Holmes also used a lot of descriptions. He described things and paid close attention to little detail. His subject of the poem, the nautilus shell, was described as a beautiful thing that changed due to nature. Comparing that to a human life, Holmes created a wonderful metaphor that people could still use today. Metaphors are very creative. One of the key ways to show your creativity during the Romanticism period was through writing poems. Holmes definitely belonged during the Romanticism time period.

In Randall Huff's literary criticism, he talks about how this poem includes a lot of references to Greek mythology. He also talks about a metaphor involving human architecture (Huff). Another thing that he wrote about was the moral of this poem. I thought that the moral of this story was to not be afraid of changing and growing. Just like the nautilus shell, I thought Holmes was trying to encourage others to grow, change, and just be yourself in life. Randall Huff interpreted the moral as to continuing to grow spirituality (Huff).

Poetry can be interpreted in many different ways. That is the beauty of poetry. One person can be completely right and give support for why a poem is saying one thing while someone can give a perfectly good other reason. I enjoy reading poetry, interpreting it, and listening to other people's interpretations.

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.

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).