{"id":74,"date":"2026-09-10T15:33:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T15:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/?page_id=74"},"modified":"2026-09-10T15:33:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T15:33:24","slug":"essays-poetry-other","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/?page_id=74","title":{"rendered":"Essays \/ Poetry \/ Other"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Honors Thesis<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Old Myths Through New Eyes: A Feminist Re-Appropriation of Ovid&#8217;s <em>Metamorphoses<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through an in-depth analysis of seminal poetry from over two-thousand years ago, Jenna Christine&#8217;s Undergraduate Thesis\u2014awarded Summa Cum Laude\u2014explores the consequences of the stories we tell and the ways we choose to tell them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary>Read abstract<\/summary>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even though the common reader may not be familiar with Ovid\u2019s\u00a0<em>Metamorphoses,\u00a0<\/em>over centuries of circulation, this epic poem has woven itself into the very fabric of our present-day culture. In my thesis, I will analyze three of its most popular myths, searching for new feminist meanings in these ancient, male-dominated texts. In my introduction, \u201cThe Metamorphosis of the\u00a0<em>Metamorphoses<\/em>: A Brief History,\u201d I examine the epic\u2019s history of translation and explore the ethos of retelling and reinterpreting stories about rape and female subordination. In my first chapter, \u201cFrom Beheld to Beheaded: Medusa and the Male Gaze,\u201d I show how Medusa\u2019s gaze symbolizes the belief that to truly see and appreciate the woman would result in a man\u2019s loss of identity. In Chapter II, \u201cModern Arachne and Ancient Webs of Female Misogyny,\u201d I explain how Arachne\u2019s myth exposes the patriarchy\u2019s reliance on rivalry between women to maintain male dominance. Lastly, in \u201cPygmalion\u2019s Womb Envy: The Male Suppression and Appropriation of the Female Procreative Life Force,\u201d I prove that Pygmalion sculpts his perfect woman not only to use her as an object of sexual gratification but also as one of reproduction. Drawing inspiration from feminist theorists such as Laura Mulvey, Simone de Beauvoir, Susan Bordo, and Karen Horney\u2014and depending exclusively on Stephanie McCarter\u2019s translations\u2014I analyze how the patriarchy uses stories to inculcate and perpetuate its ideology.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Full thesis available <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.colorado.edu\/concern\/undergraduate_honors_theses\/bc386k55n\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-text-align-center\">Poetry<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sometimes I write poems!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><strong>Stardust and the Artist<\/strong><\/summary>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before you discovered me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I forgot myself<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and only when you forgot me<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">did I remember:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before I was yours<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before there was you&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">there was me\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A sparkling, incandescent me<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">who always had another question to ask<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">another kindness to share<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">another song to sing<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">another shrewd remark to spare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But then you came<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and lit every room with a fire so bright<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I thought I had lived my whole life in darkness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And I blew everything that I was,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">every laugh and smile and breath and thought,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">like dandelion seeds to the wind,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to you,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ever changing and capricious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I gave it all to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There was a joy in the unburdening, the undressing, the departure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I shed layers of my soul like a heavy winter coat, a hat, a pair of gloves:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Here<\/em>, I said, shrugging off my faux-fur independence from my shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Here<\/em>, I said, shaking the snow off the pom-pom atop my knit-wool conviction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Here<\/em>, I said, tugging away my scarlet, silk self-love one finger at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And you took<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and took and took,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">happy to lighten the load,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">happy to bear the burden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oh, what a saint you were<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to carry the weight<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">of the ghost I made myself for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How ever did you hold all that empty air?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I don\u2019t blame you for what I became;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You didn\u2019t take anything I didn\u2019t already give.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You were never so much a thief as a pirate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">exploiting my vulnerability,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">taking what I gave you to make a profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An artist and his muse\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I let you paint your dreams upon my flesh<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and admonish me when you looked upon your design<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And saw your nightmares looking back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I gave you my body and you gave it to the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And the world gave it back, mangled and distorted,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">entirely changed from its original.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And you loved me, like every artist loves<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and hates his art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Though your love was always more cruel than your hate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hate doesn\u2019t lie or last, but love<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">will take a hundred names and wear a hundred masks<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and break the same heart a hundred times over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And like every artist, your wild ideas lifted you<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and drifted you elsewhere,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to another person to call your canvas,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">another person willing to blow away every part of herself&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">like a wish on a dandelion puff<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">in her pursuit of you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I stood naked before your vacant easel,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">empty air that I was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You forgot me,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and I remembered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">before there was you,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">there was me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And before there was me,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">there was stardust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I donned my winter gear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Faux-fur independence snug around my shoulders,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Knit-wool conviction warm against the tips of my ears,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Scarlet, silk self-love soft against my palms.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I will always be more than your art,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">more than your muse,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">more than what you gave the world<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and what the world gave back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You did not break me<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">or leave me unfinished or un-whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are no pieces missing,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">merely rearranged.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You were always going to be an artist,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and I was always going to be mine and then yours&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and then mine again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was always going to forget myself and&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">be found by you and forgotten by you<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and remember myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And in the end,&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and in the beginning,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and in the always,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I was going to be made of stars.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><strong>The Tempted and the Attempted; a companion to Barnaby Barnes\u2019 \u201cParthenophile and Parthenophe\u201d<\/strong><\/summary>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">How to express consent without words?<br><em>Eccho, without words.<\/em><br>Between desire within and desire without, how can one distinguish?<br><em>Eccho, \u2018tis anguish.<\/em><br>Tis anguish, a virgin mirror-bound,<br>and to anguish is the mirror-virgin bound.<br><br>For when Man speaks, naught but his own words dost he hear.<br>Even no means yes (neuer, euer) upon his expectant ear.<br>The Nymph runs, and yet Man concocts to bound.<br>He prays for his preys and thinks praise is due;<br>He the fulfiller, the pursuer in the wood,<br>the first to have ful-filled her, thus forever distinguished.<br><br>The first to within the hour wet her flower with dew,\u00a0<br>to tempt, to take, and leave her residue.<br>To refuse is to jest and to love to deserve,<br>such is his justification to use and to serve.<br>Thus is the way of men in the wood:<br>Guided by wood to have as they would.<br><br>Virgin and virgin-lover bound:<br>One who wishes to be alone in the wood<br>and one who desires to sire within&#8211;<br>He who twice hears back his own words<br>twice-over and over will relieve his anguish,<br>flattering her a-while until spring is due.<br><br>Laughter or tears, she\u2019ll have him in her ear:<br><em>Eccho, your beauty imposes upon me such anguish<\/em><br><em>After such pain inflicted, \u2018tis not relief I deserve?<\/em><br>With a longing so strong, what else might a man do?<br>Of options there are few such when Man asks \u201cif you would?\u201d<br>than to give the cursed response: <em>Eccho, if you would.<\/em><br><br>The Nymph and her voice, (and with it her choice,) bound<br>to that of another, her resolve his to undo.<br>His words or her words,<br>naught one way to distinguish.<br>Whatever did she do to deserve such anguish?<br>She fears she may never escape from the wood.<br><br>Having left his mark within, his pride thickens upon adieu.<br>Blinded by his words repeated, he cannot see her own has withered thin.<br>He cannot see her: <em>Eccho, with her din.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/details>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Honors Thesis Old Myths Through New Eyes: A Feminist Re-Appropriation of Ovid&#8217;s Metamorphoses Through an in-depth analysis of seminal poetry from over two-thousand years ago, Jenna Christine&#8217;s Undergraduate Thesis\u2014awarded Summa Cum Laude\u2014explores the consequences of the stories we tell and the ways we choose to tell them. Full thesis available here. Poetry Sometimes I write [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-74","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78,"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/74\/revisions\/78"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jennachristinewrites.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}