by Aidan Chivers A mayfly, dancing through her only spring, Explores her meadow, bathing in the light Of sunbeams passing through her dappled wing Which flutters on her maiden, carefree flight. Some fleeting words float through the dying breeze – She flutters […]
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by Aidan Chivers The sleepless moonlight dusts the tops of trees, And tastes a calming scent upon my lips Which curls around my outstretched fingertips And drifts, like fleeing dreams, along the breeze. From dusky monochrome I turn away – I step inside, try in the darkness not to choke, And seek within this […]
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A selection of some of 2017’s most popular articles on our website. Featured image by Max Clements – see more snowy pictures of Oxford here. Fantastic Trumps – and Where to Find Them: On Fantasy Tropes & Political Narrative Alex Waygood ‘Dwindling’ Tom Saer The Saturday Ritual Michael Leong What’s New About Fake […]
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by Aidan Chivers The air around me is calm and still as I wake up, but if I keep my eyes closed and breathe slowly, I can still hear the fading echoes of church bells, morning lectures and Latin grace. They have not vanished, but are softly receding into old, fading patterns which hold glimpses […]
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by Aidan Chivers As clear blue symbols dance before my eyes, And I lie still, my head upon the ground, Each part of me, in dappled sunshine crowned, Wants formal shape in selfish compromise, And hides itself in Nature’s rich disguise – I watch my youthful fragments form a mound Of […]
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by Aidan Chivers As I awake in strange and foreign bed And on my face French sunlight gently falls, I look for my own room around my head But find myself between uncertain walls. My eyes, in earnest, dart around and seek With puzzlement a trace of something known – They chance upon some words […]
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by Aidan Chivers As I wait for my train I watch thoughts and strangers roam In two centuries of litter where I stop and bathe my mind; I trace the seats, the tracks, the stars, to see, or maybe find A moment for myself in this place they’ve all called home. I step across […]
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by Aidan Chivers The Myth of Rhodes: a Special Report The Myth of Rhodes: Editoriel Rhodes: a Perspective Rhodes Must Fall: a Timeline Putting Rhodes in His Place Iconography Campaigns: a Global Perspective Safe Spaces and Student Protest Complete Bibliography for the Report Dr Ian Forrest: Guide to Further Reading Facebook posts cited Previous Poor Print coverage […]
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by Alex Waygood The Myth of Rhodes: A Special Report The Myth of Rhodes: Editoriel Rhodes: A Perspective Rhodes Must Fall: A Timeline Putting Rhodes in His Place Iconography Campaigns: A Global Perspective Safe Spaces and Student Protest Complete Bibliography for the Report Dr Ian Forrest: Guide to Further Reading Facebook posts cited Previous Poor Print coverage […]
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by Aidan Chivers The cracked pots of consonants lie strewn across the ground, And quiver with the rattle of feeble cliché – Whimpering, they give out a creaky, plaintive sound Battered by tiny tongues forcing their decay. Colourless vowels fade, hollowed out through overuse: An impotent oblivion of musty, mouldy scents. Antique tapestries unravel; […]
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A selection of some of 2016’s most popular articles on our website ‘Oxford: A café map’ – Sophie Barnes Oriel Interviews: “I like to be popular…” ‘Misinformation in the Rhodes Campaign’ – Madeline Briggs ‘Periods, Taboos and Female Shame’ – Emma Gilpin ‘Chicken Run or Ritual Slaughter’ – Jacob Warn ‘Remembering […]
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by Aidan Chivers ‘Ubi caelum condidit umbra/Iuppiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem’ (Aeneid 6.271-2) – ‘When Jupiter has buried the heavens in shadow, and black night has stolen the colour from things’ ___________________________________ Drawing on traditional Greco-Roman mythology in his assignment of a powerful deity to explain the grandeur of this natural process, Virgil […]
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by Aidan Chivers In the latter part of the 1st C BC, the Emperor Augustus’ obsession with Roman sexual morality was based largely on drawing contrasts between the behaviour of his day and the perceived standards of former times. Seeing moral decline as being in parallel with wider national failings, he linked the greater chastity […]
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by Aidan Chivers As the heat of our idyllic nineteenth summer draws to its close, and gives out its final surge of warmth in a late September burst, it is inevitable that we should gather at the bar which featured so prominently in our last few years of school. Full of excitable, childish memories and […]
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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 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 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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by Aidan Chivers I barely had time to walk over to my seat, sit down, and look up nervously before my interviewer fired me the question: ‘So what’s the point of literature?’ Fumbling around frantically for a suitably profound response, I remember stammering something about its potential for uniting people and the common ground it […]
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by Aidan Chivers “…Lay away, silent corner Side by side, we follow our minds Walk it on, then we trip On the line, wait we are not fine Wait, you are not mine…” Lights are flashing, the air is buzzing, the smoke is dancing. Lucy Rose, as charming, modest and talented as ever, reaches out […]
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by Aidan Chivers In the year 458 BC, things were not looking good for Rome. Just recovering from internal frictions between patricians and plebeians, the relentless onslaught from their enemies the Aequi was becoming increasingly alarming. At a time of such desperation it fell upon one man to step up and lead the Romans, to […]
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The Poor Print 