Shackleton Poem
One of the first items I found in the archive catalogue when I started work at the museum was a note of a poem attributed to Ernest Shackleton dated July 1917 – ref no:
HSR/V/18/1. This interested me as it would have been written shortly after Shackleton returned to England following his epic 800-mile voyage in an open boat to South Georgia. Would the poem be about his thoughts and feelings following this momentous and death defying adventure? I ordered it up and looked at it in the library the following day. What I found (and some subsequent research) led in a different direction and is a great example of why working with archives is so fascinating.
The `poem’ was in fact 4 lines on a postcard (see below) with `anon’ underneath and then Shackleton’s signature further down and a date - July 1917. Some initial research revealed that the lines were from verses proposed to be added to the national anthem and written by a First World War poet, James Elroy Flecker. Flecker was subsequently killed during the war aged just 24.
However, the last two lines had been changed from Flecker’s original text to give more of a maritime flavour … could this have been Shackleton’s suggestion following his epic sea voyage? Or is there some other explanation?
`Dawn lands for Youth to reap
Dim lands where Empires sleep
And all that dolphined deep
Where the ships swing ….. ‘
Stuart ( Head of Archive and Library)