In Passing Worlds, Elizabeth Holmes gives us poems that imagine the historic voyages to Tahiti of Captain James Cook on the Dolphin and Endeavor. The poems examine both imperialism and exploration from various points of view, including a Tahitian priest, native girls stolen from their families, Captain Cook, and lowly sailors living on shipboard. The voyages brought back impressive stores of knowledge on new plant and animal specimens, and Captain Cook surely made a significant contribution to the history of exploration and science, but all these scientific rewards came at a high human cost.
