Customer Reviews

What the Ice Gets : Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition 1914-1916

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This epic poem brings Shackleton's attempt to reach the South Pole to life! Some of the chapters tell the story from the point of view of individual members of the expedition; some describe particular events. Each fact is documented. Its one thing to know that Shackleton and a part of the crew left the rest of the crew behind, and travelled 800 miles in a dory on a rescue mission. Mueller brings the situation to life, describing the plight of both the rescuers and the rescuees. And then, in a moving and haunting conclusion, she tells of some of the individual's lives after the voyage. In sum, its an adventurist's story, a naturalist's story, a poet's story. A book you will want to reread, read out loud, and give to your friends.

This is a case where the economy of a well-crafted poetic line accomplishes what might take a page of prose. The imagery and emotion evoked by this slim volume more than capture the beauty and desperation experienced by Shackleton and his company. No space is wasted on mundane logistical cataloging and diary-keeping. Instead the reader is in the grip of perilous nature from beginning to end. The final section sketching the fate of the men after their great adventure on the ice shows that miraculously overcoming one peril does not innoculate you against life's other afflictions.

The story of Shackleton's expedition alone is an amazing one, and this telling of it does an admirable job of getting across the feelings as well as the details. Mueller mixes the men's words with her own descriptions seamlessly. She uses noteworthy quotes and adds her own with that same feel, such as when Crean recounts returning from an earlier Antarctic expedition:

"More than how you look, 'tis what
you see that changes most."
The first time I saw trees again,
they looked to me like green ghosts." (p. 18)

Overall, this is one hell of a project for a poet to take on, and she more than just does it, she does it justice. She takes not just the expedition but the broader tale of the changing world as these survivors find themselves alive but lost and passing away in a world where a World War is changing everything:

"The men whose lives Frank Wild helped to save are all
long dead. Their deaths have fallen
so far behind us they are become, as Worsley would say,
quaint." (p. 70)

This is a book well worth picking up.

The Shackleton story is amazing, but this accounting of it is stunningly thought through and executed. Read it over and over.