Welcome to Tyndale's Angle, a collection of academic and popular writing that I have made available to the Internet reading public since the first Clinton administration. All the material found here is copyrighted, but reproduction for personal or classroom use is welcome. Additional works will be added from time to time, weekly in the instance of my "Just Angling" columns, and as the spirit moves me with other works. I am grateful to Coastal Carolina University for expert technical support--Jack Flanders, Vivian Ford, and Laura Hogue are generous geniuses of the Internet Age--and for released time by my most understanding English Department and our gracious School of Humanities. A few details of my personal history, from Brooklyn through Vietnam to South Carolina, may be found at Wading South, below.

Comments and questions are welcome via e-mail: Millus@Coastal.Edu

Donald J. Millus

Professor of English

Coastal Carolina University, Conway, SC, 29526

(Click your heels--I mean your mouse--on any of the following titles in color to continue your trip around Tyndale's Angle.)

The Exposition of the Fyrste Epistle of Seynt Ihon, by William Tyndale: A Critical Edition (This text is also available, with thousands of other works in English, Latin, Classical Greek, Hebrew, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and French in the beautiful and ambitious Bibliotheca Augustana at:

http://www.fh-augsburg.de/~harsch/anglica/Chronology/16thC/Tyndale/tyn_exj0.html )

Praise of Golf, Praise of Folly: A Reformation Golf Fantasy (For well-read fanatic golfers only.)

The Ebbets Field Knothole: Brooklyn, New York (For all those who remember Brooklyn when the Dodgers were still there.)

Just Angling 2001-2005 (For latest weekly "outdoor" columns from the Horry Independent, Conway, SC, see http://www.horryindependent.com/ )

Photo Gallery

Recent Jottings: Prose and poetry for the nonce.

Orpheus in the Trailer Park

It didn’t have to be this way. Or did it?

Two beautiful crying (off key) kids and a third four months off.

Beer sucking neighbors with a pit bull weren’t the worst:
After what they had seen, Hades’ Horror, nothing frightened Eurydice,
And he could look a snarling mongrel in the eye, smash
Its ugly nose in flight with a two by four.

Those bikers at the end of the row
No doubt cooked a meth lab.
Why else don masks outside their aluminum doors?
He had smelled far worse, in what now seemed
Just a recurring dream. Fortunately for them all
The prevailing wind sweeping up
From the river with its hot or chill breath
Hit them first. Besides, the bikers were better than
Vigilantes to keep the druggies away,
At least from stealing around here.

He had lost at negotiating twice
First by looking back, the Big Mean Ones
Knew he would

And then going down a second time to find
His fallen forgiving bride.

“O.K., give us the worst place on earth to live,”
Amor vincit omnia he believed, not amor vincit omnes.

The Demons just laughed:

“It’s a deal; climb back up there to your eternal home,
Waccamaw Swamp Trailer Park, and a day job”
At Wal-Mart in a new world where a musician
Would not starve, barely. “They never learn.”

It seemed like the Elysian Fields, at first,
Making love in the early morning light almost until the first arrived.
And then, too soon, the second.

She watched the Soaps, Oprah, and Jeopardy, and now, by Dis,
Letterman, even after the kids were asleep.

Perhaps he shouldn’t have gone back down?
Maybe the Fates knew better?

Copyright 2007

Wading South: Fishing the Twentieth Century, Part II Available via Amazon.Com

There follows a sample of the poems in my book, Wading South. A prose explication precedes each of the poems in the published text. (Atlantic Publishing, Tabor City, North Carolina, 9/10/2001). "Big Rock Mate's Drowning" is based on the story of a fatal accident at sea during a sportfishing tournament held annually on the North Carolina coast.

EAST RIVER BELLS

© 2002 Donald Millus

The connection of bridges and highways,
Washington, Triborough, East River, West Side (once),
anything to avoid Manhattan Streets,
but there they are fishing those suspect waters,
not just a few, but many men, some women, too.

They sit on the benches, far right side of the island,
both on maps and in our minds,
their backs to us driving by,
we mostly watching for potholes or hunks of rusty metal.

Their bell tipped rods, lined up on the waist high rail,
the angle a precise 77 degrees, sinkers pulling line tight,
bait is bloodworms for eels, or stripers,
or could a porgy come this far up the Sound?

What caught my eyes were the bells,
as on a Scarsdale bird watcher's cat's collar.
What need for bell if one is watching?

Perhaps to take a nap?

Or maybe just to tell the world of city walkers,
joggers, and drivers that their East River still has life,
like the bells of Holy Saturday vigil service
at an old neighborhood's Polish Catholic church.

BIG ROCK MATE'S DROWNING

© 2002 Donald Millus

Any billfish is a big billfish, awesome.
The blue comes to the boat, tossing the single hook and skirt

To no avail. She will be tagged. She will be released.

The young man stands there, as strong as he will ever be,
leader in hand, wrap, wrap, wrap, get her close,
tag and unhook...and suddenly then he's falling.

What was the equation? A roll of the boat,
a lean of his upper body, a leader he could not let go?

No panic. The water is warm, the fish still on,
splashing, only his sunglasses awry. Push them straight.
His first thought had to be to save the fish.

Why did that marlin surge again just then?
Let go, let go, they shout; choking, he hears only a roar.

Down into Gulf Stream water,
the billfish with leader and mate,
down the clear, cooling, darkening, smothering depths.

Boatmates watch excitement turn horror
on tower, on deck, and worst, below,
down faster than they could think or move,
fathoms farther, finally, than they could see.

He never let go, no body ever found.

How long did blue marlin tow her mate,
billed head tossing to rid herself of his dead weight?

Forever.

Requiescat in mare in pace,
rest all who die at sea.

Quotes worth quoting:

Bobby Knight, ca. March, 1991, press conference after Coastal Carolina College vs. Indiana, first round of Final 64: (Responding to a question as to the possibility of stopping Coastal's Brian Penny, who couldn't miss with his three-pointers from the left corner.)

"I don't know; I didn't have my shotgun with me."

It seems Knight's Texas neighbor in 2007 was just unlucky.

Coastal Carolina University Website, February, 2007:

"After a unanimous vote, David DeCenzo was chosen as Ronald R. Ingle's predecessor by the Coastal Carolina University board of trustees on Feb. 10." (It should be noted that John Stewart used "predecessor" for "successor" in his interview with a Justice Department official on "The Daily Show" last night, Feb. 11th 2008. "All my idols have feet of clay.")

Dr. John B. Durrell (1937-2005):

"Students become English majors because they like to read. Nothing wrong with that." (ca. 1987)

Other notables : "Quote of the Week"

(tie) Steve Spurrier, football coach, U.S.C.-Columbia, and David Bennett, football coach, Coastal Carolina University:

"Dadgummit!"

Scripps-National and ESPN Missed This Misspeller:

“Rescuing: r-e-s-c-u-e-i-n-g, rescuing.”

Donald Millus, May, 1953, Brooklyn Prep Spelling Bee, First Round

Frank DeFord, his voice dripping with sarcasm as thick as maple syrup, on the "Big Four" at the Masters: "Big Coastal Carolina, Big Winthrop, Big South..." (National Public Radio, "Morning Edition," April 6, 2005) [Mr. DeFord, he of the big voice and attitude, does not like the adjective "Big" applied without justification. Comments from the land of the "Big East" are always welcome down here.]

"Over the years, though, we have come to think of New York as an appealing golf destination, like Hilton Head or Myrtle Beach but easier to get to." (David Owen, The New Yorker, Mar. 28, 2005, p. 26.)

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287 tp. 2008.doc

English 287, Term Paper, General Directions:

Spring, 2008

Question: What is typically American about Wading South?

Approach: You may write about a poem, a series of poems, a prose explication or a series of explications, or any combination of the above.

Research: Your paper will be based on your reading of Wading South, the authors we have read in class, and your personal observations and experience. Please quote liberally from Wading South and from your readings in American Literature. Basically, find a group of poems—no more than two or three—that strike you as having specifically American characteristics about them. Based on your reading of American Literature—Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Crane, Bishop, perhaps even Dickinson, Hemingway, etc.—comment on the poems in an essay of some 750-1000 words.

N.B. You do not have to write about fishing or seafood harvesting, but your starting point is the poetry. You do have to write about what makes all this literature American.

Documentation: Cite by page number for all your quotes and have a "Works Cited" page at the end of your paper. Minor Details: Paper should be 4 pages or so in length, plus cover sheet and "Works Cited" page. Double space, use 10 or 12 point type. Use a cover sheet, your title centered and not in quotes. Your name, English 287 and section, and date will be in the lower right hand corner. No plastic covers: use a staple in upper left-hand corner!

Due Dates:

March 3rd:: paragraph on topic you have chosen.

March 10th:: Sentence type outline with your thesis and explanation of what you are attempting--be specific!--plus one complete sentence per paragraph.

Paper is due March 31st..

N.B. Sample term papers are on my website, but if you're there already it follows:

Sample 287 Term Papers

N.B. These are examples for content, not for format! (Double space, center titles, etc.)

English 287 Term Paper

Saluting Simple

American literature enjoys a short but wonderfully rich history. Authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Ezra Pound, Abraham Lincoln, Walt Whitman and Mark Twain embody true American spirit. They laid the ground work for what is considered typically American. American writing celebrates endurance, optimism, the good and the bad of sprawling civilization, unity and the common hard working people. Wading South by Donald Millus also celebrates ideals that are truly American. Millus discusses the challenges and benefits of civilization and urges us all to appreciate the simple joys of American life because often they are the most rich and enjoyable.

Millus’s “Hoboken Party Boat” is a recollection of his free rides on early morning trips to fish in the Atlantic just outside New York City. Millus admits that one of the greatest things about the trip is anticipating the home style meal straight from the galley he is to eat on the deck of the “Palace” in the foggy morning. His sumptuous description of the basic breakfast creates such strong imagery that one can imagine being there on the deck eating it alongside him. The smells of the Jersey coffee factories foster even more sentiment of actually being there. “Hoboken Party Boat” is most evident in its ties to the true spirit of American authors, not only because he celebrates the simple joys of life but also because he sees the trip similar to the trip that Whitman described in “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”. Millus mentions “Whitman’s friendly leering loving grin always there through the early fog or first sun.” (Millus 6-7). Like Whitman, Millus salutes all who are unified by traveling those very same waters around the great city of New York. In a way, Millus pays tribute to the fishermen that work hard on the “Palace.” As Ezra Pound once celebrated the simple life of the fisherman in the poem “Salutation”, saying “And I am happier than you are, And they were happier than I am;”(Pound 7-8). Pound was obviously wary of the day when such simple joys in life would be eliminated by advancement of civilization and the hurried lifestyle we admit to far too often. Millus also appreciates the joyfully simple. His vivid imagery and celebration of simple suggest he knows Pound’s writings well. “Hoboken Party Boat” might have fit well into Pound’s compilations. There is one word though that sticks out in my mind as defining something splendidly American. Millus states “Rise at 4:30 in full dark and breakfast on the deck at 7 always tastes so solid.” (Millus 8-9). There is something undoubtedly American about an experience such as this being “solid.” Perhaps it suggests the enduring and transcendent qualities of American experiences. I believe those that came before us realized and appreciated that we as American’s possessed something special, a prosperity so special that they felt the need to gird it with sentiment of all enduring qualities.
Millus’s “Spottails and Kids” provides another interesting dynamic of American life. American writers like Emerson and Whitman possessed great optimism. This optimism springs from America being full of life. America is so lively because our nation vowed to be unbridled by any single traditionally dominant race. Yes, we have had our issues; there is no denying that, but America is the land of equal opportunity no matter what race or religion. What makes America so full of life is that we accept all walks of life and then aim to bond them together to create an institution bigger than ourselves. Unity across all races and religions because of our freedom to choose and our respect to each man as equal without alienation of a man for things he did not and could not choose to be born into makes America lively. Millus, in describing his poem to the reader, remarks that his crew of young children “looks like America, before that phrase came into being: John is blond, heavily Celtic, Squirrel very black, and Tommy has the blood of South American Indians and their Spanish friends flowing through his veins.” (Millus p.161) Millus smiles at the kids’ joy that springs from a quickly thrown together fishing trip. In keeping with American style, Millus does not shy away from his praise to God for such a wonderful experience. Just as Melville confidently included the theme of the seven corporal acts of mercy into his Bartleby the Scrivener or his reference to Job in the end of the short story, Millus confidently opens up dialogue with the Lord in the end of his poem. Millus intentionally writes “No wonder they sing His praises.” (Millus 28). Being American, Millus need not fear talking about God. In fact, he is sure that our country’s history with religion is a bond most American’s comprehend. The reference to “His praises” tells of the author and the time and place in which he lives. Millus, who studied in seminary but did not complete his ordination, obviously has religious background. This poem is marked with a typically American expression of praise to God. Millus gives thanks to God for all special things as writers of praise song did long before him.

Millus’s “North River Stripers” gives us a Twain like realistic view of the diversity of American life. Not only are the obstacles of race explored in “North River Stripers” as they are explored in Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but the two works also share a similar setting. While Huck and Jim adventure mostly along the Mississippi River, a decidedly less urban area than 20th century “North River” or lower Hudson River, it still shares the same idea of opportunity for the characters involved. Huck and Jim view the river as an opportunity to escape their various types of bondage, one more literal than the other. The young college friend of Millus viewed the river as an opportunity to make a quick buck. Unfortunately for Huck and Jim, as well as the young man from New York, this opportunity was accompanied by taking advantage of people along the way. Millus tells us that the stripers caught under the bridge were sold to people that were not of his culture, neighborhood or color. The fish were not gamefish but apparently his friend knew this and was fine selling second rate catches to others. Huck and Jim duped many along their way to protect their secrecy. Huck even dressed up as a girl and made up multiple female names for himself (multiple being an accident of course) in order to go into one city. Huck and Jim’s unwanted companions, the King and the Duke, were supposed to be the masters of deception but even they were out played by Huck and Jim. The most striking similarity between the realism in Twain’s work and Millus’s “North River Stripers” is not deception but the uneasiness about racial issues. Huck’s thoughts are played out before the reader very bluntly. He is not sure if Jim is equally human and worthy of his loyalty or if he is someone else’s property. Millus bluntly recalls the conversation between himself and the college comrade when he writes “Did he say ‘blacks’ or ‘negroes’? No, I don’t think so. Would ‘niggers’ with the same cut-breath as ‘Jews’ have been his subject? If so, he lowered his voice. Or the innocent, then, ‘colored’?” (Millus 1-5). This excerpt is especially telling of the time in which the conversation took place, a time when racial prejudice was being battled heavily. So real is the lack of respect but also the confusion in the mind of the young men. So real is the confusion in Huck’s mind during the era of slavery.

William Faulkner once said while giving a speech accepting his Nobel Prize, “I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things.” (Faulkner). This is the attitude of an American writer. American writers write about the spirit, compassion and sacrifice of each common American person. American writers celebrate the simple and enduring things we enjoy here. Millus certainly did that in Wading South.

Works Cited

Millus, Donald. “Hoboken Part Boat.” Wading South Fishing the 20th Century Part II. Tabor City, NC: Atlantic Publishing Co., 2001. 36.
Pound, Ezra. “Salutation.” Concise Anthology of American Literature. Ed. George McMichael and James S. Leonard. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006. 1634.
Millus, Donald. “Spottails and Kids.” Wading South Fishing the 20th Century Part II. Tabor City, NC: Atlantic Publishing Co., 2001. 162.
Millus, Donald. “North River Stripers.” Wading South Fishing the 20th Century Part II. Tabor City, NC: Atlantic Publishing Co., 2001. 50.
Faulkner, William. Banquet Speech. Nobel Prize in Literature 1949. City Hall, Stockholm, Sweden. 10 December 1950.

(Please note that right margins are irregular in the sample; kindly attribute this to computer error. Content here is good and you may use the structure as a model. No need to cite this in your "Works Cited.")

American Themes

By A. Student

American literature is characterized by several themes focusing on wilderness, civilization, and individualism. Different authors add to the conversation of these specific themes, associating them with what is considered "typically" American in life. Wading South recalls memories of American tradition that coincide with the American desire to escape from "civilization". Other American writers such as Bishop, Whitman, and Crane have historically contributed to the identified cultural themes and created milestones in defining what is considered "typically American". Millus notes that "The 21st century is now our only world and time to fish, but memories are good too." (Millus 220). He effectively identifies with the "typical" American element of memory, wilderness, and freedom throughout Wading South. His American experiences of fishing on the waterways created a place of refuge for himself and fellow anglers. As stated in "Niantic Head, Boat Connecticut", "It was truly a family thing" (Line 8). Millus's poem "Boston’s" distinctly recalls his memories of

"Christmas-tree rigs on a Sheepshead Bay party boat.
Our crew looks like America forty years before that slogan:
Italian, Irish, Africa, Puerto Rican, the old German
with his grandson, all American fishermen" (1-4).

"Bostons" recalls a day when success was abundant for everyone. The passengers and crew set sail with a distinct goal and that was to fill their sacks with Boston mackerel. The harmony of the crew is perceived and interpreted to be very American.

"Sharks and Jeeps" also expresses a very American sentiment. The American feelings of freedom and contentment are delivered throughout this poem:

"What a gas! Beer too, but trophy fish
Without a trophy fishing boat, Driver, not captain
angler, friends, spectators, not a huge number
up and down the beach, no I.G.F.A. to please,
just a bunch of boys having a good clean killing" (15-19).

It is obviously apparent that this particular group of anglers feels completely free from the stresses and burdens of the "civilized" life and are enjoying life's more simple and rewarding pleasures. [As an aside, can we ever return after 9/11 to that feeling of freedom; it’s not only the music of the fifties, sixties, seventies, and eighties that is gone, but the assurance of enjoying that music in peace and safety]

The poet, Elizabeth Bishop is "typically" American throughout her descriptive and symbolic memory of her poem “The Fish.”. Bishop reflects on the true and inner beauty in remembering how “she caught a tremendous fish." The
joy she recognizes in her experiences causes her to set the fish free and become more aware of the beauties around her in nature. Her "victory" comes from letting the fish go, which is a concept foreign to many anglers. After defeating a fish in a rigorous struggle, a typical angler would indulge in his accomplishments by cleaning a fish and eating it.

Perhaps Bishop recognizes that she would better be able to hold the day she got her first fish as a memory, or deliver the experience in what would become a famous poem, rather then keeping the fish as a trophy. " everything was
rainbow, rainbow, rainbow! And I let the fish go. (74-76) Away from "civilization" many such as Bishop become more aware and thus appreciative of their surroundings and gain an insight into the pure natural beauty of our lives.

Although not a fisherman, Whitman is still able to express his admiration with the waters in "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry". The poem's repetition both distinguishes and reiterates the theme of the poem, which is the continuity of
life based on common experiences. Whitman believed that humanity is brought together and therefore related by the experiences shared throughout time and across space. In “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry", he identifies the relationship
among humanity with actually crossing New York Harbor. [I might that on 9/11 thousands were evacuated from downtown Manhattan Island via ferries and tugboats.] "A hundred years hence, or ever so many hundred years hence, others will see them, Will enjoy the sunset the pouring-in of the flood tide the falling-back to sea of the ebb-tide” (1083).

A very American desire to escape from "civilization" on the waterway is most identifiable in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Twain uses the Mississippi River as a symbol of freedom for Huck and Jim throughout their
adventures". The river was utilized as a gateway to freedom; for Huck away from the "sivilizing" restrictive nature of his life in St. Petersburg; for Jim to the "free" states. Time after time "Civilization" would pose a threat to Jim and Huck even when they were on the peaceful waterway because the "evils" were just on the riverbanks. Regardless of the "evils" they were confronted with,
the river was inevitably used as a safe haven. "...A sliding down the river, and it did seem so good to be free again, all by ourselves on the big river and nobody to bother us" (Twain 1325).

Huck is able to learn life lessons on the waterway that he might never have been exposed to had he chosen to continue living a "civilized" life in St. Petersburg. Consequently Huck Finn is the epitome of the statement made by Ralph Emerson in "Self Reliance", "Whoso be a man, must be a nonconformist" (Emerson 657). Huck consciously rejected the life of a
"civilized" boy.

Occasionally individuals are able to experience a "typically" American sentiment without actually taking part in one. An author such as Millus who describes a "typical" American tradition allows his readers to interpret and relate it to their own experiences, whether that comparison is similar to an experience on the water or something completely different. Sometimes it is
the mere sharing of an experience that makes it a "typically" American tradition.

Wading South effectively expresses the "American" beauty and freedom in a way most can relate to, fisherman or not. Any body of water is a place of refuge, freedom, and insight into a very "American" well-being. The ideas evident throughout Wading South are those same concepts prevalent in the writings of Bishop, Whitman, and Twain, all of which are quintessentially "American".

English 287 Sample sentence-type outline

Florian P. Storch
Eng. 287, section 11
Fall, 2007

Title: Kids on the Water: An American Tradition

Thesis: The water, whether for fishing, boating, or rafting, provides an escape from everyday life for kids and adults, as is seen in Millus’s poem “Spottails and Kids” in Wading South.

Procedure: I will draw on this poem, my own experiences with my grandfather on Chesapeake Bay, and the use of the raft and the river as not only an escape method for Huck Finn, but a real source of peace and safety from the real world. Incidentally, this is a strong American tradition, the desire to get away from so-called civilization. I will also cite other American authors such as Whitman and Dickey.

Topic Sentences:

1. “Spottails and Kids” reminded me of my own family experiences on the water.

2. This is a very American experience as we can see from our readings of Mark Twain.

3. Just as Huck learned from Jim, I learned from my grandfather.

4. The river—or any body of water, large or small—is a place of refuge for the kids everywhere.

5. The author views his experiences with neighborhood kids as fun, but it is part of their learning to be adults.

6. Whitman, Bishop, and other American writers, whether they are fishing or just on the water, glory in the experience. (I will quote from a number of our writers.)

7. Conclusion: Wading South is “vurry American” as Ezra Pound said of Robert Frost’s poetry, but it is an American anyone can identify with even if they have just taken a ferry ride or skipped stones on a pond.

287 Works Cited.doc – Microsoft Word

Sample "Works Cited" page. (Not counting your cover sheet, this will be page 4 or 5 of your paper.)

Works Cited (Centered)

Emerson, Ralph. Self Reliance. Concise Anthology of American Literature. Ed. George

McMichael et. al. 5th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1993.

665-672.

Millus, Donald. Wading South. Tabor City, N.C.: Atlantic Publishing, 2001.

Whitman, Walt. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." Concise Anthology of American Literature.

Ed George McMichael et. al. 5th ed.Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice

Hall,1993.1082-1085.
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N.B. In your essay you might have:

"Hoboken Party Boat" in Donald Millus's Wading South reminds me of Walt Whitman's "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." Whitman

there says "Cross from shore to shore, countless crowds of passengers!" (line 111).

Don't use "line" if you quoted a line previously, i.e. that is, if you told the reader you are citing by lines.

If you quote more than two lines of poetry, indent them and copy as in the original.

Two lines or less may be run into your text and separated by a slash, i.e. /

Example: Millus's poem "Clams" in Wading South gives a veritable menu of New York City beers in the 1950's: "Trommers,

Schafer, Rheingold, Knickerbocker/ at Lundy's in Sheepshead Bay" (lines 14-15).

N.B. No further need to use "lines" since you told the reader you are not citing by page numbers.

In your text, citing Millus's prose:

In his commentary "Clam," Millus expresses his admiration of "the skill of clam shuckers at Lundy's in Sheepshead Bay and Clam Broth house in Hoboken" (11).

(It is understood that this is a page number, not a line number.)

Note that the above page numbers are for the fifth edition of The Concise Edition! ADJUST YOUR References ACCORDINGLY.

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