It's #tbt! Enjoy this great one from
SWWIM Every Day
's archives!
In the summer of 1844, novelist George Eliot went to London to have her head “cast” by the eminent phrenologist James Deville.
Twenty-two-and-a-quarter inches round:
a very large head. See the lift
of the jaw as it draws a line
from the white throat’s side.
This lady, average-height, is gifted
with moral weight. Here, the bold
curves at the cranial base
sweep elegantly to the crown.
My dear, excuse me. Raising her locks,
the temple is—ah—luminous and smooth.
A broad pause in the circuitry
where her wordflow is suspended;
each side a mold for the pad of my thumbs
to rest. What pleasant symmetry;
such dimples are fashioned to be touched.
Here, though, are resistant ridges,
imaginative nodes we might cite
as a novel development. Forgive me
if I ask: is she lonely? Does she cycle
between moodiness and joy?
There is a plain along the brow
where her spirit has retrenched.
We could call it a reversal; faith
translated back into empathy.
I thank you, Madam Evans. I will
present more work to the society
next month. Until then
I shall remember the heft
and swell of your skull,
the worlds within it, which
I am honored to glimpse,
by dint of my hands upon you—
the passionate snap of your book.
Sarah Law lives in London and is a tutor for the Open University. Her latest collection, Therese: Poems, is published by Paraclete Press. She edits the online journal Amethyst Review.
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