The Chambered Nautilus | Style

The Chambered Nautilus Style

Personification

“Personification,” or the attribution of human qualities to nonhuman objects or creatures, is an important literary technique in “The Chambered Nautilus.” One of the poem's main extended metaphors compares a nautilus to the human soul, and the success of this metaphor depends on imagery that associates the nautilus with a human. Examples of this personification include the idea that the nautilus has a “dreaming life,” its description as a “tenant,” its stealing with “soft step,” its ability to stretch out in a home, and the notion that it is a “child” with “lips.” All of these characteristics are not literally possible in a shelled aquatic creature, and they implore the reader to imagine that the nautilus is human. Holmes uses this technique to develop the idea that the nautilus is a metaphor for the human condition, because personification makes it easier for readers to imagine themselves as a nautilus.