Video of a Computer Model Reconstruction of the Elephant Man Reciting a Poem

A computer model of Joseph Merrick (the Elephant Man) recites a poem Merrick used in his letters in this video from the 2011 Discovery documentary Meet The Elephant Man. To recreate Merrick’s speech, researchers applied constraints and a prosthetic to an actor. Here’s Merrick’s poem:

‘Tis true my form is something odd,
But blaming me is blaming God;
Could I create myself anew
I would not fail in pleasing you.

If I could reach from pole to pole
Or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul;
The mind’s the standard of the man.

videos via Discovery

via b3ta, The Awesomer

E.D.W. Lynch
E.D.W. Lynch

Writer and humor generalist on the Internet and on Facebook.