America: An Illusion by Faiza Khaled Throughout history, the flaws of America have been glamorized, creating a facade of America’s true image. America can be viewed through different lenses, each of which suggest a unique perspective of what America truly is. These perspectives can be viewed in the form of Read more…

“What does it mean to be an American?” by Bridget Durham Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder. One person finds the rain fall beautiful while another finds a bright sunny day to be beautiful. This is not to say that one is better than the Read more…

“A Noiseless Patient Spider” by Walt Whitman “A noiseless patient spider, I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood isolated, Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them. 5 And you O my Read more…

What America Is by Josh Stephenson From the years of 1850 to 1930, the United States of America saw a multitude of vast changes to its landscape. From a sudden influx of immigrants from foreign lands to the birth of capitalistic and intuitive industry, the country shifted greatly in many Read more…

What is America? By Grace Novascone From 1840-1924 America is like an old crumbling building in the Valley of Ashes or the “fantastic farm where ashes grow” from Great Gatsby. Even though America has been through the Civil War and World War 1, the building still stands. However, it is Read more…

“When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer” by Walt Whitman When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me, When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them, When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with Read more…

This month we start with Mike Burns’ choice for the high school book he hated, the not subtly homoerotic Billy Budd by Herman Melville.  “Billy Budd, Sailor has been called the best short novel ever written. In his brilliantly condensed prose, Herman Melville fashions a legal parable in which reason Read more…