The Pinto Carver Essay Contest
There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.
— Leonard Cohen “Anthem”
'A woman can be proud and stiff
When on love intent;
But Love has pitched his mansion in
The place of excrement;
For nothing can be sole or whole
That has not been rent.'
— W. B. Yeats “Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop”
There would still remain the never-resting mind,
So that one would want to escape, come back
To what had been so long composed.
The imperfect is our paradise.
Note that, in this bitterness, delight,
Since the imperfect is so hot in us,
Lies in flawed words and stubborn sounds.
— Wallace Stevens, “The Poems of Our Climate"
The Topic
In the third and last stanza of Wallace Steven’s “The Poems of OurClimate,” the speaker tells us: “The imperfect is our paradise.” Write an essay in which you agree or disagree with the narrator’sassertion. Needless to say, the more well developed your thoughts,the more specific your language, the better.
Eligibility
Current Liberal Arts Honors Freshmen and Sophomores
Specifications
750-1000 words, titled, double-spaced, and typed, with your name in the upper-right hand corner. No cover page.
Awards
1st Prize: $1500
2nd Prize: $500
3rd Prize: $250
