Lyric Poetry
a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person
"The Chambered Nautilus"
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SR. 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, 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 toil That 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 born Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn! While 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! From <https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44379/the-chambered-nautilus |
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NOTES
The first stanza attempts to describe the creature. The second stanza states that a cracked shell was found on a beach. The next two stanzas speak of how much time and effort the creature put into creating the shell and what its life was like and how it pursued its own glory. The fifth stanza asks the reader what our goal is in life and tells us to pursue it.
This poem is written as five stanzas with seven lines in each. It has the rhyme scheme of AABBBCC.
The speaker or narrator of the poem uses the nautilus as a metaphor for the human soul, stressing that its example provides a "heavenly message" of how people should grow and develop through their lives.
The first stanza attempts to describe the creature. The second stanza states that a cracked shell was found on a beach. The next two stanzas speak of how much time and effort the creature put into creating the shell and what its life was like and how it pursued its own glory. The fifth stanza asks the reader what our goal is in life and tells us to pursue it.
This poem is written as five stanzas with seven lines in each. It has the rhyme scheme of AABBBCC.
The speaker or narrator of the poem uses the nautilus as a metaphor for the human soul, stressing that its example provides a "heavenly message" of how people should grow and develop through their lives.