2. “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new
idea, never regains its original
dimensions”
• a new idea permanently reshapes our thinking;
you can’t “unknow”
• Think of an idea that has affected you or society
in such a way.
3. • Sometimes people have to chose
between cherishing the past and
looking toward the future. For
example, when you move out of
your parents’ house, will you
expect them to keep your room
exactly as it is or to convert it to a
home office? Change can produce
a sense of well being as well as a
sense of loss. List situations or
occasions in life when one must
decide between holding on to
the past and making a change.
What are the benefits of each
choice in the cases listed?
5. Stanza 1:
• Imagination - “unshadowed main,” the poet’s
imagination, a “venturous” bark with
wings, “gulfs enchanted,” (ocean is
magical, myserious)
• Siren song, sea mermaids sunning their hair.
“The ship of pearl” is the shell of the
nautilus, that has sailed in these places of
depth and imagination.
6. Stanza 2:
• The shell is damaged. No more wings
unfurled, “wrecked is the ship of pearl.”
• The frail creature inside, that worked so hard
to expand its shell, lived a dim, dreaming life;
now lies broken for you to
see, “rent, revealed.”
• The shell experienced many changes in life
(and grew to accomodate them), in death, it
has also changed.
7. Stanza 3:
• Yearly toil to expand the “lustrous coil.”
• The nautilus leaves last year’s dwelling, which
no longer fits him, for the new one he has
built.
8. Stanza 4:
• The nautilus washed up
on shore, though dead
and discarded, teaches the
speaker a “heavenly
message.”
• The silent, small creature’s
message is louder than
any Triton ever exclaimed.
Reaches to the deep
caverns of the speaker’s
thought.
9. Stanza 5:
• The speaker urges his soul to grow and build
each year a larger dwelling - expand the
mind, learn new things, reach toward heaven.
• Forget the ignorance of the past.
• “Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s
unresting sea” - death, leaving the body
behind (which the soul has outgrown), the
soul is free to reach heaven.
10. Theme 1: Growth and Beauty
• “lustrous coil” - beauty
• “shinning archway” – beauty, art
• “year after year beheld the silent
toil” - long labor, perhaps
unappreciated before
• “as the spiral grew,” “built up” -
natural growth
11. • Change is a natural part of life; not fearsome
(stanza 3)
12. Speaker
• a person strolling along the beach
• comes across a washed up shell of the nautilus
and contemplates the life of the little creature
13. Reread lines 29-35.
• the soul escapes its shell
• afterlife and happiness if we
lived to be better people
every day
14. Theme 2: Change
• building “more stately
mansions” (line 29)
• The speaker is referring to a
change to greater or nobler
thoughts or endeavors.
• improving
themselves, experiencing
new challenges, and
becoming better human
beings
16. Analyze the visuals.
• As the nautilus grows, it adds a new chamber
to its spiral shell, abandoning the old chamber
for the new one.
• This process of growth might suggests that
change has a necessary role in life and that
people should strive to achieve changes that
enlarge them instead of just accepting the
changes that come.
