As the author of this Shackleton biography states, ‘few people remember him for his love of verse’. This provides an entry point for a new study of Sir Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic explorer and Edwardian hero. This is not a chronological biography; it is episodic and based on a single theme, which the author explores in detail. The reader unfamiliar with the flow of events in Shackleton's life might be advised to refer to one of the more conventional biographies, such as Shackleton (Huntford Reference Huntford1985) or the newly-released Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer (Smith Reference Smith2014).
However, the lack of a detailed narrative in Meyer's new study does not thereby make it any less valuable. The author sets out to illuminate one important aspect of Shackleton's life, and one aspect alone, and to select most carefully those parts of his subject's life that demonstrate his lifelong study and continuing love of poetry. He tells the story of how, in 1910, an interviewer, thinking that men of action were not always men of books, somewhat smugly asked Shackleton if he read. To the surprise of the interviewer, the answer came back with typical Shackletonian bluntness: “Always.” Meyer explores the many factors that contributed to the explorer's love of verse, including his Irish heritage and the influence of his wife, Emily Dorman, a comfortably-well-off, middle-class Englishwoman who introduced her husband to the pleasures of reading Robert Browning.
Browning was indicative of the particular strain of poetic expression that most appealed to Shackleton, who was attracted to him primarily because of his Neo-Romantic brand of cosmic optimism—the never-say-die determination of the Victorian achiever not to let life and its troubles overcome the human spirit, and to find a way through in the face of life's trials and challenges. Two other poets in this mould captured Shackleton's admiration: the British-Canadian, Robert Service (1874–1958), known as “the bard of the Yukon,” who provided Shackleton with a vision of the romantic adventurer; and that great English poet of the Imperial quest, with its attendant duties and morals, Rudyard Kipling.
Service travelled extensively through North America and settled in the Yukon. As a great exponent of the open road, he won favour with Shackleton, who always found the day-to-day duties of a settled and civilised life rather irksome. Service's preference for “verse, not poetry, . . . something . . . the fellow in the pub would quote” also appealed to Shackleton. Kipling provided Shackleton with a vision of the principled and dutiful servant of the Empire, especially as expressed in his well-known poem, “If,” which provides a model of manly self-sufficiency, and his Barrack-Room Ballads, a collection which Shackleton found both entertaining and instructive.
Aside from these three, Shackleton also favoured Tennyson, Coleridge, Swinburne and Longfellow. As Meyer shows, poetry was a constant thread running through Shackleton's life, and he was able to put his study of all these poets to practical use whenever he needed a pithy quote with which to enliven his various public speeches, or to communicate a sense of bubbling optimism and overwhelming confidence. These attributes inspired his audiences and his fellow explorers and companions, contributing to his well-recognised leadership qualities. As Meyer reiterates, the reason he was such a good communicator and an inspiring speaker “was, of course, his lifelong study of poetry.”
However, Meyer pushes his study further than merely recording Shackleton's love for, and practical use of, poetry. Part of his remit is to make available all of Shackleton's own poetic creations, which, considering how widely scattered the sources are, is an ambitious but (I am glad to report) largely successful undertaking. Even more ambitiously, he often uses Shackleton's favourite poetic pieces as a means of exploring the Shackletonian mentality, implying that the poetry he read was somehow a cipher for explaining his thought patterns and his view of the world.
In this very ambitious methodology, Meyer is only partly successful, I think. At its most effective, this method of correlating particular poems with Shackleton's life experiences and ideals, does successfully illuminate some of his deeply-felt thought processes. A good example is in Chapter Fifteen, where Meyer uses Browning's poem, “Prospice,” to elucidate certain aspects of Shackleton's strongly-held beliefs. The poem was written after the death of Browning's wife, Elizabeth Barrett, and it contains musings on the nature of marriage, commitment and death. Browning says that the thought of death must be conquered, but not allowed to “creep past” or to be suppressed. Death, moreover, far from being a separation from loved ones, may be a “great release” and the ultimate reunion of souls. Shackleton and his wife took great comfort from this view and, sometimes, before leaving on another dangerous expedition, Shackleton would send Emily a telegram consisting of a single word—Prospice.
On other occasions, however, Meyer's method of elucidating thoughts and attitudes through poetry is less successful, pushing it to extreme or tendentious lengths. In discussing Tennyson's Ulysses as a template for Shackleton's restless wanderings and the pursuit of knowledge through adventure, he likens the swish-swish sound of Shackleton's skis and poles to a sort of mantra running through his head—“not to yield, not to yield”—a refrain taken directly from Tennyson's poem. This seems far-fetched and more than a little unlikely.
As with many first editions, there are a few typographical errors and omissions that need correcting (e.g. “This was only the second expedition to Antarctica [to] be organised . . .” (page 72) and “The poem is quite sophisticated but well with[in] the capabilities of a sixteen-year-old . . .” (page 178)). The proofreader has also missed a few phrasal adjectives which require hyphens (e.g. “Shackleton rose to reply to the after[-] dinner speeches . . .” (page 102)). These sorts of errors are easily corrected in a second edition. More regrettable, however, are some of the typesetting choices that make for inelegant copy, such as setting “25th” instead of the more usual “twenty-fifth,” or even “25th.” It might be argued that setting cardinal numbers as figures is allowable, but setting ordinal numbers as abbreviated superscript spoils the visual elegance of the line and can introduce a small mental hiccup for the reader as it breaks the continuity of the text.
While on the topic of inelegance, the layout of the book is a little disappointing. Page margins are cramped and the matching of bottom lines on facing pages is sometimes out by more than one line of text. In these days of computer typesetting and tight production costs, this is perhaps excusable, but is less than ideal. In my review copy, text on the front and back covers is very close to the physical edge of the page, as if the guillotining process has not been controlled carefully enough, but this may change on production copies. It is nice to see the inclusion of traditional running heads when so many new books these days omit them. They provide a convenient and instant guide, re-engaging readers who lift their heads from the page for a moment's thought. I would have liked to see them set in lower case rather than capitals, as they are a tad too prominent on the page. On the positive side, chapter heads are nicely offset from the beginning of the text, with ample white space and good placement on the page.
These minor concerns can be put aside, however, because it is on content that most readers will judge this book, and, in this regard, the author has amply fulfilled his brief, providing the reader with a new and interesting thematic approach to the life and achievements of Sir Ernest Shackleton. The author's attempts to explore Shackleton's mind though the medium of poetry is a worthy undertaking, but is only partially successful. However, the main point of the book—to provide sometimes little-known facts about Shackleton's lifelong commitment to poetry and poetry-writing, and to show that his love of words has helped him to express himself well—is ably executed. Meyer shows that Shackleton's familiarity with, and ability to formulate, the well-turned phrase and the well-chosen word contributed in no small way to his success as an inspirational and charismatic leader of men. Shackleton was no literary genius, as he himself would have readily conceded, but his abiding love of poetic expression was a vital part of his success as a man of action. I commend the book as an interesting and informative read.
