Have you ever noticed how Boomers can quote Beatles' lyrics? For Shackleton, the equivalent was poetry - particularly the poems of Robert Browning and Robert Service.
Shackleton's favorite poem to turn to "in times of trouble" (Let It Be, The Beatles), was Prospice. Here are a few lines...
"For sudden the worst turns the best to the brave, The black minute's at end, And the elements' rage, the fiend voices that rave, Shall dwindle, shall blend, Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain, Then a light, then thy breast, O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again, And with God be the rest!" Robert Browning.
