February 22, 2021          Written in the scientifically solemn voice of Edmund Burke, as well as through his mindset and philosophies, offering critique on the depiction of “beauty” in Lord Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty.” The goal is to investigate, through Burke’s theories, what Byron calls “beauty” and its convolution with “the sublime” in Byron’s […]

Phyllis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America” “Some view our sable race with scornful eye”  Analyses of this line reveal an anti-colonialist meaning, allowing the poem to be read through two lenses – one that overtly appeals to white publishers and another which imparts Wheatley’s anti-colonialist views. To a colonialist, this line would […]

Coming into this class, I wanted to fall in love with a place that was not my own. I wanted to love a place through the eyes of another, to connect with another’s unlikely love for a place. Bettisville seemed like the perfect space for me to explore this. I wanted to explore what made […]

Bettisville: Hidden In Plain Sight There’s only room for one Trump Man in this town within a town. As far as I could see, there was road. Road and mountains, which firmly stopped the road as it ached toward the line of slouched tree canopies. The white painted midline, outstretched in long, parallel lines and […]

“If I didn’t have time to engage with you, I wouldn’t. But I do, so why not bless you.” // I’m not sure what compelled me to talk to Christine in particular. Maybe her bright teal tie-die scarf pulled my attention. Maybe it was her smile. She was approachable enough, so I felt invited to […]

5/2/21 Tony: Another Woman’s Treasure Tanglewood Drive, White River Junction, VT The drive from Hanover to Tanglewood Drive in White River Junction was eclectic, almost ominous. The garage sale didn’t specify address – the advertisement on Facebook only  provided the street name. I typed this into my phone and while I waited for it to […]

4/13/21 “My top choices are Nashville, Boston, and Columbia, South Carolina,” Mitchell tells me. His new job requires him to pick from the company’s national office locations; he hasn’t put much thought into it. “I’ll go anywhere that’s not here.” By “here,” Mitchell refers to Geneva – a place I’ll refrain from calling a small […]

julia 4/5/21 She opens her phone to a treasure trove of distant memories. Old places, with people whom she used to be close, and things she used to be. Phantom pains run through her leg. It’s normal to feel this sensation. At least that’s what she tells herself. The brain is feeling hurt from a […]

4/30/21 Woodstock, VT He was a tall man with dark features — a dark rimmed face outlined by dark stubble along his jawline, mostly covered by a face mask. He wore a black beanie over his jet-black curls, and inky black jeans and a black corduroy coat over his slender frame. All of the darkness […]

by Julia Robitaille The vines, they choked out everything. The problem with the vines was that when Frank trimmed them, they always came back even stronger. They started over by the black chain link fence, where the paved pass bordered the street by the swamp. They entangled the base post and climbed along the bottom […]