Orwell called T. E. Lawrence; not a bad epithet

Coming from him, although a far cry

From lionhearted or grey-eyed Athena.

Still, a plausible phrase for one smart man

Trying to get a handle on another. Labels

Give leverage, a life’s work in a long book

Becomes moveable, a portable impression

Lifted out of print into the mind’s library

Of never-forgotten phrases. Biodata

A Stanford prof calls her CV, listing

Papers read and books published, even

A few poems. From Abelard to Zombie

Is the range of Stanford’s Encyclopedia

Of Philosophy. Alpha to Omega?

Orwell was an underground optimist,

He stopped at the last name he thought of

When the 1920s came to mind, the writer

Who searched for himself in the desert.