“Departure— In Four Parts ”
My submission consists of one four-part poem that elicits imagery of four characters from Literature Humanities’ texts (Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Dante’s Inferno, Virgil’s Aeneid). Each character is affected by what I deem a departure, entailing a loss, transformation, or journey-- the movement from one to the next. The poems themselves have similar imagery, and each character that is detailed begins with a "d". This simplistic element visually and audibly unites the characters and enforces recognition of thematic similarities. The poems themselves do not include the characters' names and do not stick strictly to their stories although they are definitely based on the characters' stories. This allows the reader to step beyond the confines of the stories and find new interpretations. At the same time, the poems relate personally to me as the writer, which is something that I believe the reader will feel and react emotionally to. The poems exhibit Ovid’s idea that everything is in perpetual flux and reveal a desire for constancy that is unattainable. There is a melancholy element, a sense of foreboding, an expression of inevitable change that exists even in our modern day lives.
Anneke Solomon

Anneke Solomon(CC ’15) is a poet and soon to be novelist, planning to major in Creative Writing and Art History. She has been recognized for achievements in the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers competition, the Bucks County Poetry Contest, and more. She is from Stockton, New Jersey, a small farm town where she still spends many of her weekends to seek peace away from the city. After college and traveling the world, she plans to teach high school literature by day and live in an old stone house, with a cat and a beautiful husband, where she may sit by the windowsill and write by night.