July 2024 – Princeton Writes

A Poem for You: From “A Rain of Stars” by Évelyne Trouillot

admin2024-06-18T10:22:05-04:00

From “A Rain of Stars” Évelyne Trouillot translated from the Kreyòl by Danielle Legros Georges In what language should I speak to you when the words beneath our sheets blow over my belly life has me holding a grudge pouring coffee on my recollections not revealing where the moon finds its water When children cry and won’t stop one after the other the words dry up in the palm of my hand not letting me baptize the dark Believe me I don’t know what you are: A navel that’s lost its cord in the midst of a poetry book? A hibiscus [...]

A Poem for You: From “A Rain of Stars” by Évelyne Trouillotadmin2024-06-18T10:22:05-04:00

Word of the Week: tendentious (tĕn-DĔN-shəs)

Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:20:03-04:00

tendentious (tĕn-DĔN-shəs) Definition (Adjective) Having a purposed tendency; composed or written with such a tendency or aim. In Context "Indeed, these texts are tendentious and combative, and they often skew well-known evidence to satisfy their particular needs – as did the French, the Chinese, and the Americans." Patricia M. Pelley, Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past, 2002.

Word of the Week: tendentious (tĕn-DĔN-shəs)Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:20:03-04:00

A Poem for You: On the Wing by Christina Rossetti

admin2024-06-17T14:43:03-04:00

On the Wing Christina Rossetti Once in a dream (for once I dreamed of you) We stood together in an open field; Above our heads two swift-winged pigeons wheeled, Sporting at east and courting full in view:— When loftier still a broadening darkness flew, Down-swooping, and a ravenous hawk revealed; Too weak to fight, too fond to fly, they yield; So farewell life and love and pleasures new. Then as their plumes fell fluttering to the ground, Their snow-white plumage flecked with crimson drops, I wept, and thought I turned towards you to weep: But you were gone; while rustling hedgerow [...]

A Poem for You: On the Wing by Christina Rossettiadmin2024-06-17T14:43:03-04:00

A Poem for You: Between midnight and eternity Kettly Mars

admin2024-06-17T13:28:59-04:00

Between midnight and eternity Kettly Mars translated from the French by Nathan H. Dize The rain has shelved its watering can A sweet dew rises from the earth Everything is calm now The bed beneath the mosquito netting awaits Your eyelids grow heavy You cannot wait to slip into the void But the poem suddenly clings to you As though your desires mean nothing It clings to you, overpowering you The poem slides under your skin Hides itself in your bloodstream You must conceive it, there and now You must carry it in your womb You must give it life So [...]

A Poem for You: Between midnight and eternity Kettly Marsadmin2024-06-17T13:28:59-04:00

Word of the Week: pusillanimous (pyōō-sə-LĂN-ə-məs)

Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:14:55-04:00

pusillanimous (pyōō-sə-LĂN-ə-məs) Definition (Adjective) Of a person: lacking in courage or strength of purpose; faint-hearted, craven, cowardly. In Context "Mr. Richard Perle, the hawkish, outgoing Assistant Secretary of Defence, touched the mood of the White House when he said the allies were mealy-mouthed and pusillanimous in refusing to confront the Soviet Union with accusations of cheating and bad faith." Christopher Thomas, "US Patience with Europe Wears Thin," The Times, March 28, 1987. This word was suggested by Dan Day in the Office of Communications.

Word of the Week: pusillanimous (pyōō-sə-LĂN-ə-məs)Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:14:55-04:00

Word of the Week: querulous (KWĔR-ə-ləs)

Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:12:50-04:00

querulous (KWĔR-ə-ləs) Definition (Adjective) Of a person: complaining, given to complaining, full of complaints; fault-finding; peevish. In Context "They reminded him of his maternal grandmother in her last years, when, far from being a strong, sensible, courageous woman, she grew weak and querulous, her expression of general discontent increasing with her vulnerability." Patrick O'Brian, Desolation Island, 1978.

Word of the Week: querulous (KWĔR-ə-ləs)Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:12:50-04:00

A Poem for You: Purple by Kwame Dawes

admin2024-06-17T12:51:54-04:00

Purple Kwame Dawes For Akua Walking, I drew my hand over the lumpy bloom of a spray of purple; I stripped away my fingers, stained purple; put it to my nose, the minty honey, a perfume so aggressively pleasant—I gave it to you to smell, my daughter, and you pulled away as if I was giving you a palm full of wasps, deceptions: “Smell the way the air changes because of purple and green.” This is the promise I make to you: I will never give you a fist full of wasps, just the surprise of purple and the scent of [...]

A Poem for You: Purple by Kwame Dawesadmin2024-06-17T12:51:54-04:00

Book of the Month: A Moveable Feast (1964) by Ernest Hemingway

admin2024-06-19T09:38:29-04:00

A Moveable Feast (1964) by Ernest Hemingway Critical Evaluation “A Moveable Feast” is composed of 20 sketches, rewritten from Hemingway's notebooks of the years 1921–1926. Though the volume has the air of a random compilation, it is in fact a calculated production, and this for two reasons: first, because embedded in its pages are messages to the few readers who will know for whom they are meant; and, secondly, because as an artist Hemingway never allowed himself to appear in undress. “Emotions are the only facts,” Havelock Ellis once wrote. This is a book of love, loathing and bitterness. Love of [...]

Book of the Month: A Moveable Feast (1964) by Ernest Hemingwayadmin2024-06-19T09:38:29-04:00

Book of the Month: We Must Not Think of Ourselves (2023) by Lauren Grodstein

admin2024-06-18T15:50:05-04:00

We Must Not Think of Ourselves (2023) by Lauren Grodstein Critical Evaluation "Two decades before World War II, Lauren Grodstein’s great-grandparents fled Poland’s capital city and the antisemitism that was already ascendant there. “In all likelihood,” she writes in the afterword to this accomplished sixth book, “I would not be here had they stayed.” A chilling what-if, an idea for a book. More than a century after those ancestors escaped to safety, Grodstein gives voice to the doomed denizens they might have become. Set in the brutal Warsaw ghetto that made prisoners of more than 400,000 Jews under Nazi occupation, “We [...]

Book of the Month: We Must Not Think of Ourselves (2023) by Lauren Grodsteinadmin2024-06-18T15:50:05-04:00

Word of the Week: couturier (kōō-TŎŎR-ē-ər)

Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:06:10-04:00

couturier (kōō-TŎŎR-ē-ər) Definition (Noun) A male dressmaker or fashion designer. In Context "The couturier, today the god of women's fashion, came into existence only in the final decades of the nineteenth century." Joan DeJean, The Essence of Style: How the French Invented High Fashion, Fine Food, Chic Cafés, Style, Sophistication, and Glamour, 2005.

Word of the Week: couturier (kōō-TŎŎR-ē-ər)Stephanie Whetstone2024-06-18T14:06:10-04:00

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