I think that “Flower de Luce” and “The Chambered Nautilus” are two good poems to compare with each other and relate to the Romanticism Period in which they were written. They both have all of the common qualifications that make up a Romanticist’s work. There is description, emotion, and an inner feeling or relation within the topic.
The meaning behind “Flower de Luce” is that Hawthorne’s death is going to greatly affect Longfellow. Hawthorne’s writing has been very important, and his final statement stanza is about who could finish his work but “unfinished must remain” (Longfellow). “The Chambered Nautilus” is literally about an animal that keeps building on its shell, but the meaning behind it is about spirituality. People, like the nautilus and its expanding shell, continue to grow. Eventually the nautilus is supposed to leave his shell for a “new temple, nobler than the last… till thou at length art free, leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea” (Holmes). This is a metaphor for people leaving their hard worked lives and accomplishments behind to transcend to heaven. “Flower de Luce” is sort of similar to this message. It deals with death, but more about a man’s legacy. I guess “The Chambered Nautilus” could be seen as having a very similar idea. If you look at it as the nautilus leaving the shell behind, then this could be its legacy. No other creature will be able to fill the shell the way that nautilus did, just like nobody can finish Hawthorne’s work after he has died.
Both of these poems fully embody the period. They handle both the Romanticism ideals and the ideas of transcendentalism. This is seen in “The Chambered Nautilus” at the end with a few lines such as “O my soul, as the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low vaulted past” (Holmes). This is like leaving life behind to go onto the afterlife. “The Chambered Nautilus” seems like more of a positive view of death. “Flower de Luce” deals with the subject of death as neither positive nor negative. It is just about a man’s legacy and how he should be missed. Longfellow says “I only hear above his place of rest their tender undertone, the infinite longings of a troubled breast, the voice so like his own” (Longfellow). I see this as saying that his family is above near his grave praying for him. They would be the voices that are like his own, and they have their tender undertone which would be their prayers. Both poems do a good job with detail. Holmes uses words that seem very vivid like “lustrous, irised, and sunless crypt” (Holmes). Longfellow probably uses more detail by describing the day and how “the lovely town was white with apple-blooms” (Longfellow). Longfellow also expresses his emotion in this work. He is clearly dismal from the loss of his friend. There does not appear to be as much emotion in Oliver Wendell Holmes’ poem. He is writing about a sort of serious topic, not that it is more serious than Longfellow’s, but it does not call for as much emotion because the literal meaning is just about a sea creature.
Holmes, Oliver Wendell. "801. The Chambered Nautilus”. 1909-14. English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman. The Harvard Classics." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Web. 07 Dec.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth. The Complete Poetical Works, ed. by Horace E. Scudder. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1893; Bartleby.com, 2011.
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