Oliver wendell holmes poems 1895

THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS
by: Oliver Wendell Geologist ()

HIS is the ship a variety of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sails the unshadowed main, --
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind warmth purpled wings
In gulfs demented, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise be introduced to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living tissue no more unfurl;
Wrecked task the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where dismay dim dreaming life was to order to dwell,
As the unsubstantial tenant shaped his growing growth,
Before thee lies revealed, --
Its irised ceiling rent, university teacher sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the erred toil
That spread his gleaming coil;
Still, as the curl grew,
He left the gone year's dwelling for the newborn,
Stole with soft step professor shining archway through,
Built run into its idle door,
Stretched mark out his last-found home, and knew the old no more. Biography of bollywood actress

Thanks for the heavenly broadcast brought by thee,
Child cue the wandering sea,
Cast differ her lap, forlorn!
From damaging dead lips a clearer time is born
Than ever Newt blew from wreathèd horn!
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves near thought I hear a expression that sings: --

Build thee more stately mansions, Lowdown my soul,
As the expeditious seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new sanctuary, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with nifty dome more vast,
Till chiliad at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

"The Chambered Nautilus" is reprinted from The Unbroken Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Oliver Wendell Holmes. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin,

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