The Paper Nautilus

“The Paper Nautilus” by Marianne Moore is a modern-day ode written in free verse. The poem is about a paper nautilus, a small arthropod or octopus with the ability to create a paper-like shell to hold her incubating eggs. The humans in the poem are fallible, while the paper nautilus grounds the poem in concrete details and observations. Through intense observation of the paper nautilus as she watches over her eggs, the speaker takes the reader on an intimate tour of the incubation and hatching, the attachment and separation, and the devotion and freedom. Like other Naturalist writers who focused on animal or nature poems to express or observe greater truths, Moore in this poem also explores maternal instinct and devotion, as well as the process of creation and art.

The poem does not follow a typical or strict rhyme scheme, but it does adhere to a form of five stanzas at seven lines each, and a mostly consistent syllabic pattern in each stanza. Some of Moore’s diction choices provide juxtaposition, adding to the tension in the poem; for example, the paper nautilus shell is so essential to the survival of her offspring, but its “thin glass,” a “perishable / souvenir” (Lines 7 & 8-9) of a shell, means that it is vulnerable.