The Proof Readers
by Sarah Benjamin
Sometimes I think,
While debating the conflicting claims
Of colon and semi-colon
About my place in history
George has his portraits in the National Gallery
His name proud on plaques,
Prominent in his time
And mine?
Mine disappears into a line
In a letter, a fortunate acquisition
A debt of gratitude
A gentlemanly gesture
But sometimes I like to think
When not considering
The ebb of a sentence
Or the flow of a paragraph
That I am the invisible ink that dissolves into his syntax
So magically improved
The well-placed comma that makes
All the difference
Sometimes I like to think
There’s a place for me
Between the lines
Footnotes:
George Macaulay Trevelyan (1876-1962) in a letter commenting on his marriage to Janet (née Penrose Ward) in Trevelyan, L. (2006). A Very British Family: The Trevelyans and Their World, I.B. Tauris, London and New York (p. 161).
George Trevelyan reflecting on his marriage to Janet, “I also acquired another family proofreader to which my subsequent writings owe so much (…) This was the most important and fortunate event in my life.”[1]