Issue #46: short poetry

Oh cruel heav’n and earth, You nurture me ‘til this dayTo wither and die.  — Yaozhu “Charlie” Cheng (junior, history) Lonely little bird, Don’t despair the dark of night. Wait; the dawn will come.  — Olivia Finch (junior, English and classics) Give me wisdom now Not in broken retrospect Honey on a burn  — Avery Nowowiejski (junior, Spanish and English) Autumn  Death without pity Life renews itself, ending, Changing, leaf by leaf  — Emma Wilkson (junior, English … Continue reading Issue #46: short poetry

The Importance of a Literary Canon

by David Cathel One day over the past summer I saw a book that had been reviewed as a “must-read.” At that time, I wondered whether that book was more necessary to read than any of the Shakespeare plays I have thus far neglected, Plato’s dialogues, or the Aeneid, or any other number of excellent works that I have not yet taken the time to … Continue reading The Importance of a Literary Canon

Nature and Nurture: Musings on Womanhood

by Katrin Surkan She lifts the tray gently from the hot stove, careful not to burn her fingertips through the potholder she crocheted in college. Her seven-year-old comes sneaking over to snatch a fresh cookie, drawn by the smell of chocolate chips permeating the house. The tea kettle whistles just as her husband walks in the door with a sigh. He thumps his satchel down … Continue reading Nature and Nurture: Musings on Womanhood

The Creature 

by Rooks Russell  “What is called affection is really nothing but habitual sympathy…The general rule is established, that persons related to one another in a certain degree, ought always to be affected towards one another in a certain manner, and that there is always the highest impropriety, and sometimes even a sort of impiety, in their being affected in a different manner. A parent without … Continue reading The Creature 

A Humble Suggestion

by Jameson Payne  There is a specter haunting Michigan—haunting the whole world. One by one, our venerable institutions topple, swept away by the tide of hubristic reformers, new-fangled utopians, and latter-day fanatics. Harvard has fallen to the Bolshevists, Yale to the Hegelians, Berkeley to the Gnostics. The situation is grim. But, it is in being a solitary light within this dark that Hillsdale finds its … Continue reading A Humble Suggestion

Beauty for the Common Man

by Aidan Jones Among my many pet peeves is when self-proclaimed “artistic types” scoff at the great artistic achievements of our ancestors. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” they snort, scorning a simple pastoral painting in favor of a meaningless combination of colors that some tortured soul was inspired to plaster across a canvas. They grin determinedly through an atonal opera, explaining that … Continue reading Beauty for the Common Man