The Bronze Head of Virginia Woolf Seen Through the Railings of Tavistock Square on a Bright Spring Morning in 2020 – CP Nield

In an empty square in central London, the eyes of Virginia Woolf stare out at the surging wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her eyes are haunted by the memories of a locked room, and they hunger for the vanished jolt and jostle of city life. 

In this poem, CP Nield explores the links between Woolf’s notorious ‘rest-cure’, prescribed to help her recover from depression after her mother’s death, and the isolation of lockdown. In vivid, concrete images, the poem evokes  Woolf’s complexities: her vulnerability, her spirit of defiance, her love of nature and shopping, her literary power and her puckish irreverence.

Previously published in The Spectator, the poem is presented with a specially commissioned photograph of Stephen Tomlin’s bust of Woolf in Tavistock Square.

Self-published, 2025
Written by CP Nield
Design by Liv Taylor and Charlie Noon
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Typecast
Softcover, 12pp
210 x 120mm