The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
1809 to 1894
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This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
______ the unshadowed main,—
The venturous bark that flings
______ the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
______ the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.
______ webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is ______ ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its ______ dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail ______ shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,—
______ irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!
Year after ______ beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s ______ for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining ______ through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.
Thanks for ______ heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips ______ clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the ______ caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:—
______ thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the ______ seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with ______ dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
______ thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!