by Jenny Potter On entering a hospital, one can be asked to describe pain on a scale from one to ten, a comparative measure based on all pain you can remember feeling. In this system a ten is a ten, an unfamiliar yet equally valid ten when compared to any other. Through our limited awareness, […]
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by Luke Sherridan Staring at the sculpted rock before us, no larger than my hand, I offered an answer: ‘It’s a woman’. We had been asked for our first impressions on this ancient object. ‘And why do you say that?’, asked our guide Dr. Mallica Kumbera Landrus, quickly and excitedly, and with a curiosity which […]
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by Giorgio Scherrer Marjory Szurko, Oriel’s librarian, likes books, people and Medieval English recipes I’ve been at Oriel for fourteen years now, longer than most staff members. But sometimes, I still discover things about the library that I didn’t know before. That’s always wonderful. And in a library like this there are so many things […]
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by Kat Wood She wasn’t born to be a saint, But modelled to a mind’s ideal And, with celestial restraint, Held hostage by ill-founded zeal. The two had met a single time But in his memory each day Her image changed to one sublime, Venus incarnate, he would say. And so the girl became a […]
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by Tobias Thornes Somewhere beneath the steel spires of China’s biggest city lie buried the remnants of a tiny village of ages past. Somewhere – overridden by congested roads and railways, over-trodden by millions of traipsing feet – lie the bones of countless generations now forgotten. It seems ironic that even in a city where […]
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by Tacita McCoy-Parkhill
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by Charlie Willis Self-confidence Nothing you have done wraps its chains around your ankles and drags you away from a sunset streaked with gold, and nothing you have done takes you by the hand and leads you along a lucky path to freedom. For we are all picking things up and trying things out, and […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #10 – Judgement – can be downloaded here: Issue #10 – Judgement
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by Aidan Chivers Some of the most charming moments of big family events are the retelling of old, familiar and utterly worn-out stories of past times. Told with delightful precision – and often, it is vaguely suspected, highly fabricated plot details – these family favourites resurface year after year, with no innovation or variation in […]
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by Sophie Barnes The Poor Print’s definitive Coffee Map of Oxford is downloadable here!
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by Emma Gilpin It was a secret that we all had and we kept it, ashamed, embarrassed, scared about what it all meant. I suppose that’s because it meant adulthood, but it also meant something much more intimidating than that: womanhood. I got my period when I was twelve. I didn’t, couldn’t, tell anyone about […]
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by Christy Callaway-Gale The beginning and end of everyone’s year abroad (yes, I am about to generalise, which in Oxford’s terms is the bait for your tutor to rip your essay into unbelievably miniature shreds) can be summed up by the question, how are you feeling about leaving? Surprisingly, I think both my answers, although […]
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by Tobias Thornes A wide and enticing country brews, always, just beyond our western comprehension, like a cauldron of constant change the taste of whose broth we never can be sure. Such is the allure of tantalising China: a rich civilisation veiled behind a mist of mystery. And I, like so many awe-stricken adventurers, am […]
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by Alec Siantonas In what we now call the Ancient Near East, beards were a sign of dignity. Beards adorned the virile and the vigorous, the warrior and father of warriors. I myself have small desire to sire warriors, but I sympathise with the viewpoint. I delight in my hair, in all its luxuriant abundance. […]
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A pdf of the print edition of Issue #9 – Cycles – can be downloaded here: Issue #9 – Cycles
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The Poor Print is recruiting a Managing Editor to take over the publication’s weekly operations for Trinity. This is an exciting opportunity to work with the outgoing team, with the expectation of taking on the Editor-in-Chief position in the following academic year. More details can be found here: Managing Editor Application Typical work-flow information is […]
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by Aidan Chivers After the dizzying blur of my first Oxford term, it was a strange feeling to find myself back, walking our dog, retracing the same route which had become a familiar after-school routine throughout my school days. After eighteen years in the same place, no tree, lamp-post or speck of moss on the […]
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by Madeline Briggs My high school had this motto – it was on a plaque in every classroom, repeated at chapel and assembly, hanging on banners around campus: ‘Wisdom more than Knowledge, Service beyond Self, Honour Above Everything’. I doubt many of my classmates spend a lot of time thinking about it today. Most stuff […]
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by George Prew How do we put together the history, society and beliefs of a civilisation from which we have no (or very few) written records? Such is the case with the Etruscans (the Italians before the Italians moved to Italy) and the Mycenaeans (the Greeks before the Greeks moved to Greece). After all, what […]
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by Tobias Thornes ‘Surely, this is Hell indeed. Except that these pour souls suffer not for their own but for someone else’s sins.’ The Monsoon breaks like a sudden breath of sweet, fresh air after a long asphyxiation. Across the dry, sun-seared northern states of India reverberates a wave of joyful exhilaration: the long-awaited water […]
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by Jenny Potter Lips bruised by the cool taste of your Mouth still clinging to my tongue. College steps, Cool stone, Feelings of ineptitude. A physical catharsis: Tracing the shapes of words but Releasing only the sounds Of a metronomic breath. The kiss of the mist Frustration at the expectation of Social conformism. Steel steps […]
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by William McDonald ‘To remain in the EU is a more dangerous option for British security in its deepest sense economic, political, military and social.’ As the dust has settled on the recent EU negotiations and the date for the referendum has been set, one thing is clear: these negotiations have not fixed the great […]
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by Sam Wilkinson ‘We’re off; We’re starting’ This SMS message signalled the start of a series of coordinated terrorist attacks against the people of Paris. That night in November, seven terrorists claimed 130 innocent lives in an act of abject barbarism that shocked the world. This brutality was swiftly followed by a heated media discussion […]
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by Max Clements Recently the European Union has been maligned both from the right, by the conventional Eurosceptic, and by the left – in the wake of the imposition of austerity measures on Greece – who increasingly view the European Union as an advocate of greater deregulation and privatisation. Leaving the EU would be economically […]
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by Jonathan Yeung Hong Kong has two official languages: English and Chinese. Legally, both languages are meant to have equal status. This is clearest on the streets, where all road signs are bilingual; English on top, Chinese on the bottom. Before 1997, when Hong Kong was a Crown colony, English was the language of government, […]
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh is a DPhil student in International Relations and an organising member of Rhodes Must Fall Oxford Since its inception, Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) has bent over backwards to accommodate Oxford’s ignorance. But the time has come to speak plainly. Oxford’s response to our campaign has been nothing short of shameful. Oriel College’s backtrack […]
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A recipe provided by Marjory Szuko To a pound of Flour, put a pound of Butter, eight Eggs, Yolks and Whites, three quarters of a pound of Sugar Powder, a glass of Water, a little Lemon-peel chopped very fine, and dried Orange-flowers ; work the Paste well together, then cut it into pieces of what […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #8 – Decline and Fall – can be downloaded here: Issue #8 – Decline and Fall
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The Editors For an aeroplane’s aluminium and composite canister to fly serenely through the sky, two great, guzzling turbines spin ferociously on each wing. These explosive extremities provide the force to carry those in the comfortable, quiet middle toward their destination. The Poor Print recently published a cartoon on the Rhodes Must Fall movement, in […]
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by ZX Taiwan’s president-elect, Tsai Ing-wen, is a skilled politician who brought her party from its worst scandal to its greatest electoral victory, and she is the first woman to officially lead a Chinese-speaking nation since the eighth century. Ms Tsai, who was introduced in one British newspaper as a ‘democracy campaigner, gay rights champion, […]
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Daniel Hurn, 28, electrician and maintenance supervisor, has been working at Oriel since he was fifteen. He brews his own beer, bakes his own bread, and likes the mutual respect in his team. | Interviewed by Giorgio Scherrer “I wouldn’t say that I have much of a relationship with students. Sure, when I happen to […]
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by Sophie Barnes We have produced more plastic in the last ten years than we have over the last hundred, yet it takes approximately 500-1000 years to degrade. Zero Waste is an attempt to reduce what we throw out to zero, making our lives 100% sustainable. It’s a growing online community. The Zero Waste Bloggers […]
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by Tobias Thornes The Hunza Valley stretches out before me, reposing upon my vision like a verdant dream. Except that no dream could conjure such sparkling, vivid colours, nor invoke such unimagined beauty as that possessed by this high Green Heaven. Around it, a crisp crown of snow-capped mountains dazzles in the shimmering summer sunlight, […]
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by Tacita McCoy-Parkhill
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by Jacob Warn Green was the colour of day when clods stuck to corduroy on cool mornings as a boy. Green was aching for envy at the daisy chain she’d plucked and his chin gleaming with buttercups. Green was the lie of sucking grass – a child’s drug – and sap that boys claimed […]
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by Aidan Chivers The skin yields satisfyingly beneath my eager teeth, which dive hungrily into the citrus depths. Top teeth meet bottom, and the juicy pulp is happily sucked away, leaving a perfect, circular crater in an otherwise unblemished sphere of fruit. New things in life can bring with them immense pleasure and excitement. Fresh […]
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A pdf of the print version of Issue #7 – Green – can be downloaded here: Issue #7 – Green
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by Elizabeth Stell and George Prew Very often archaeology in its perverse way will present us with an object with no obvious function. It may have been a misshapen Stone Age mousetrap, a Mayan hole punch, or a Roman cat carrier – we will never know. When the artifact turns up in a modern day […]
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by Tobias Thornes It was with some trepidation that I prepared to board a boat to Iran. It’s ironic that in the interlinked world of today borders are more sharply defined and suspiciously watched than ever, so that it’s no longer possible to travel freely, like our ancient ancestors on their long, slow trek out […]
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by Ben Koons There is an absolute hush, and even kneeling as close as I am to the priest I can only barely hear his whisper, ‘Hoc est enim corpus meum.’ He speaks these words of consecration softly to what was mere bread and what is now Our Lord and then as he kneels a […]
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The Poor Print 