Poetry Commons^™

The Star-Gazer, Jennifer Kean

The Hilltop Review

“The Star-Gazer” is modeled loosely on the Old English poem “The Wife’s Lament.” This medieval elegiac composition expresses beautifully the tensions that attend unrequited or abandoned love. It is awkward: there are clearly contrasting sentiments for the absent lover. It is frustrated and distressed: the reasons for the lover’s truancy are unclear to the reader, and presumably to The Wife. It is confused: The Wife does not understand why her partner has put physical and emotional distance between them, and the nature-imagery reflects how open-ended heartbreak can suspend, or even immobilize, personal growth. In my composition, I experiment with the …

3.14.21 - Spring, Clayton Meldrum

The Hilltop Review

This poem, written in one sitting on a Sunday morning, is a reflection not only on the transition between the physical seasons, but on the condition of the authors heart, moving from a personal season of hurt and cold bitterness (winter), on the way towards one of happiness and warmth (summer). But there is the season in between - spring.

Age Of The Universe, Sydney Sheltz-Kempf

The Hilltop Review

No abstract provided.

How To Be Held, Andrew Collard

The Hilltop Review

No abstract provided.

Mythos, Hana Holmgren

Honors Theses

Who gives a voice to the voiceless? When do we hear from those who are left behind, abused, abandoned, silenced? Mythos is an exploration of lost voices in mythology, antiquated, biblical, and personal: the women, the minorities, the marginalized. What would they say, if finally given the chance? Perhaps Helen of Troy chose to run away. Maybe Philomela was always meant to become a nightingale, and sing the world to sleep. Maybe fallen angels like making lentil soup for dinner. Maybe dead dragons are reincarnated as accountants. Maybe the stories got it all wrong.

A book of 13 poems, 6 …