The Chambered Nautilus
E5617
"The Chambered Nautilus" is a reflective 1858 poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. that uses the spiraled shell of a nautilus as an extended metaphor for spiritual growth and the soul’s continual ascent.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Chambered Nautilus canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T53852 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Chambered Nautilus Context triple: [Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., notableWork, The Chambered Nautilus]
-
A.
Mens et Manus
Mens et Manus is the Latin motto of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressing the union of mind and hand in the pursuit of knowledge and practical application.
-
B.
The Voyage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle is Charles Darwin’s travel narrative detailing his observations during the HMS Beagle expedition, which significantly influenced the development of his theory of evolution.
-
C.
On the Origin of Species
On the Origin of Species is Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking 1859 scientific work that introduced the theory of evolution by natural selection and transformed modern biology.
-
D.
In the Shadow of Man
In the Shadow of Man is Jane Goodall’s influential 1971 book that chronicles her pioneering field research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania and helped transform our understanding of primate behavior and human evolution.
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E.
Fiat Lux
Fiat Lux is a Latin phrase meaning "Let there be light," used as the inspirational motto of the University of California, Berkeley.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Chambered Nautilus Target entity description: "The Chambered Nautilus" is a reflective 1858 poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. that uses the spiraled shell of a nautilus as an extended metaphor for spiritual growth and the soul’s continual ascent.
-
A.
Mens et Manus
Mens et Manus is the Latin motto of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, expressing the union of mind and hand in the pursuit of knowledge and practical application.
-
B.
The Voyage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle is Charles Darwin’s travel narrative detailing his observations during the HMS Beagle expedition, which significantly influenced the development of his theory of evolution.
-
C.
On the Origin of Species
On the Origin of Species is Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking 1859 scientific work that introduced the theory of evolution by natural selection and transformed modern biology.
-
D.
In the Shadow of Man
In the Shadow of Man is Jane Goodall’s influential 1971 book that chronicles her pioneering field research on wild chimpanzees in Tanzania and helped transform our understanding of primate behavior and human evolution.
-
E.
Fiat Lux
Fiat Lux is a Latin phrase meaning "Let there be light," used as the inspirational motto of the University of California, Berkeley.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
lyric poem
ⓘ
poem ⓘ |
| addressedTo |
the reader
ⓘ
the soul ⓘ |
| author | Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. ⓘ |
| centralMetaphor | nautilus shell as symbol of spiritual growth ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| culturalStatus | frequently anthologized American poem ⓘ |
| famousLine | Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul ⓘ |
| firstLine | This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign ⓘ |
| form | lyric ⓘ |
| genre | reflective poetry ⓘ |
| hasImageryOf |
sea
ⓘ
shell chambers ⓘ shipwreck ⓘ |
| includedIn | collections of Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.'s poems ⓘ |
| inspiredBy | chambered nautilus (marine mollusk) ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| literaryMovement | American Romanticism ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | 19th century American literature ⓘ |
| meter | iambic meter ⓘ |
| moral | the soul should continually grow and ascend ⓘ |
| notableFor |
didactic closing exhortation
ⓘ
use of scientific natural object as spiritual symbol ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1858 ⓘ |
| rhymeScheme | regular rhyme scheme ⓘ |
| subjectOf | literary criticism ⓘ |
| symbol |
chambered nautilus shell
ⓘ
ship ⓘ soul ⓘ spiral chambers ⓘ |
| taughtIn |
American literature courses
ⓘ
high school English curricula ⓘ |
| theme |
aspiration toward higher ideals
ⓘ
immortality of the soul ⓘ leaving the past behind ⓘ moral and spiritual progress ⓘ self-improvement ⓘ spiritual growth ⓘ transcendence ⓘ |
| tone |
didactic
ⓘ
inspirational ⓘ meditative ⓘ |
| usesDevice |
apostrophe
ⓘ
extended metaphor ⓘ imagery ⓘ personification ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Chambered Nautilus Description of subject: "The Chambered Nautilus" is a reflective 1858 poem by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. that uses the spiraled shell of a nautilus as an extended metaphor for spiritual growth and the soul’s continual ascent.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.