The well-known painting by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze celebrates the surprise attack by Washington's men against the Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey in the Battle of Trenton, Christmas 1776. It's a sufficiently iconic moment in the story of the American Revolution for regular Christmas Day re-enactments:
[Photo: Julio Cortez / AP]
It's also, I've just learned, the title of a sonnet:
A hard, howling, tossing water scene.
Strong tide was washing hero clean.
"How cold!" Weather stings as in anger.
O Silent night shows war ace danger!
The cold waters swashing on in rage.
Redcoats warn slow his hint engage.
When star general's action wish'd "Go!"
He saw his ragged continentals row.
Ah, he stands – sailor crew went going.
And so this general watches rowing.
He hastens – winter again grows cold.
A wet crew gain Hessian stronghold.
George can't lose war with's hands in;
He's astern – so go alight, crew, and win!
Written by in 1936 by David Shulman, it may not seem a particularly inspired piece of work at first glance, but there is one element of the poem that makes it extraordinary: it's an anagrammatic sonnet. That is, every line is an anagram of the title, "Washington Crossing the Delaware".
Douglas Hofstadter, of Godel, Escher, Bach fame, singled it out in the New York Times in 1996, in a review of a book in which it featured - and the author David Shulman, now in his eighties, replied:
Just as a magician does not like to disclose his modus operandi, so I am loath to disclose mine. As Mr. Hofstadter pointed out, I wrote the sonnet in 1936; and now, after waiting 60 years, I find that nobody so far has equaled or surpassed it.
Indeed. It may seem like pointless game-playing, but it's also an astonishing tour de force.
You got me interested in Shulman. His wiki article led me to this obit, which is better than the wiki article (I'm not sure why it appears in The Scotsman).
http://www.scotsman.com/news/obituaries/david-shulman-1-560851
Apparently, he was 23 when he wrote that poem, he was a scrabble campion, and he never married!
Posted by: Dom | December 29, 2013 at 02:20 PM
Yes, an amusing obituary. The sonnet barely rates a mention in among all the hot-dogs and shysters.
Posted by: Mick H | December 29, 2013 at 05:20 PM