Reviews
The Sea is a Continual Miracle: Sea Poems and Other Writings by Walt Whitman, edited by Jeffrey Yang (University Press of New England, Lebanon, NH, 2017, 320pp, index of titles, isbn 978-161168-922-8; $19.95pb) In the introduction to the collection The Sea is a Continual Miracle, editor Jeffrey Yang acknowledges that no single theme can be said to characterize all of Whitman’s poetry. Nevertheless, Yang argues convincingly that “The sea, though, can encompass it—puts it in its place, gives it its pace.” The volume presents an impressive and carefully curated collection of Whitman’s poems and prose from every phase of his career in order to bear out Yang’s sweeping and useful theoretical claim. For Whitman scholars, and scholars of maritime literature more generally, Yang’s compact introduction makes two especially relevant contributions. First, he provides ample evidence that Whitman’s lifelong proximity to and relationship with the ocean animated his poetic output, both in terms of overt content and imagery, as well as at the level of form and composition—oceanic patterns of flow, circulation, rhythm, and complexity are consistently found in the structure of individual poems (even poems in which the sea is not the obvious topic), and in Whitman’s career-spanning strategies of revision and transformation. In addition to putting Whitman’s life and work into historical context, Yang also provides an engrossing account of Whitman’s far-reaching international influence up through our contemporary moment. He reminds us of Whitman’s importance to the recognizable heavy-hitters of US and British Modernism, but then reveals how he has also inspired writers and artists farther afield, in the Caribbean, Latin America, Japan, and China (just to name a few). His focus on Whitman’s global circulation is especially apt for this volume’s oceanic aspirations. Yang’s arrangement of works is equally thoughtful and theoretically valuable. He based his selections on three principles: First, he included poems and prose pieces— primarily from Whitman’s journal Specimen
Days—that explicitly address the sea, or the Coral Sea—the first great carrier battle. “its connected bodies of water,” such as He witnessed that battle from the bridge rivers, creeks, or lakes. Next, there are selec- aboard USS Lexington. Officially an obtions meant to highlight the influence of server, he nevertheless put his life in danger the sea on Whitman’s formal choices. Even to rescue trapped and injured seamen after if water is thematically absent, these poems the carrier was mortally wounded. Officers are “emulative of the sea’s character and who witnessed his actions recommended cadence.” Finally, the volume is arranged him for a commendation. chronologically in order to demonstrate So, how was it that only a few months how Leaves of Grass evolved over Whitman’s later, Johnston and his editor found themlifetime. It begins with selections from the selves in danger of being imprisoned for 1855 edition; each section includes poems running a story about the Battle of Midway, that were new to subsequent headlined: “NAVY HAD WORD OF JAP editions or that had been PLAN TO STRIKE AT SEA”? The newssignificantly revised up paper article asserted that the United States through the final Leaves of knew in advance of the exact Japanese orGrass published in 1892. der of battle. The American ambush of the Yang’s careful construction Midway strike force turned the tide in the The Glencannon Press is of special value to readers Pacific and, as we now know, was enabled 4 col.ininches (2.25 inches) interested seeing or teach-x 4.5 by the Americans’ cracking of Japan’s naval right hand page,code. bottom right. ing Prefer the relationship between content and poetic forms, But this feat of cryptography remained because it highlights Whit- secret for decades, unless you drew the man’s rigorous and disci- logical conclusion from Johnston’s Chicago plined ethos of revision, Tribune that the advance “word” had to which is not always immediately apparent come from somewhere. The American high in his exuberant and wide-ranging free verse command assumed that, as a result of the style. Early in his introduction, Yang inTHE GLENCANNON cludes a quote from one of the late entries PRESS from Specimen Days. Whitman writes, contemplating the ocean, “I felt I must one Maritime Books day write a book expressing this liquid, mystic theme.” Yang’s important volume provides a definitive demonstration of how the liquid and mystic power of the sea is NEW! critical to appreciating the scope of WhitThe hisTory of The AssociAman’s prodigious innovations and accomTion of MArylAnd PiloTs plishments. by Capt. Brian Hope Amy Parsons Vallejo, California
G P
Stanley Johnson’s Blunder: The Reporter Who Spilled the Secret Behind the US Navy’s Victory at Midway by Elliot Carlson (Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, MD, 2017, 352pp, illus, notes, biblio, index, isbn 978-1-59114-679-7; $29.95hc) There is no question that Stanley Johnston, a somewhat-dashing would-be war correspondent hanging on by his fingertips to a job at the Chicago Tribune, was in a terrible place at a fortuitous time. Johnston was the only reporter on any of the American ships involved in the 1942 Battle of
A veteran pilot of more than 40 years experience guiding ships through Chesapeake Bay, Capt. Hope chronicles the fascinating history of this organization from before the Revolutionary War to the present. FREE Catalog 1-510-455-9027 Online at www.glencannon.com
SEA HISTORY 163, SUMMER 2018 57