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Article By 🌊 IB12 and Clara Cullen 8b (18.06.2026)
Pride is not a single story or moment in time. It is shaped by protest, remembered through
history, and reimagined in stories we continue to tell about love and connection.
This collection brings together three poems that explore Pride from different angles. One
reflects on protest, comparing past and present struggles for visibility and rights. Another is
inspired by the correspondence between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West, exploring
queer love through history and letter-writing. The third draws on the Greek concept of ethos
and the idea of soulmates, reinterpreting myth as a way of understanding connection and
identity.
Before each poem, a short context is included to explain its inspiration and perspective.
Together, they form a reflection on how Pride exists across time—through resistance,
memory, and imagination.
1. LETTERS BETWEEN VITA AND VIRGINIA, AND NOW, TO ALL
OF US.
Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West were both writers in early 20th-century Britain. They
shared a close emotional and romantic relationship at a time where queer love is forbidden.
Their connection was mostly carried by the letters they wrote. The letters allowed them to
communicate more freely and intimately. This poem is inspired by a letter of Virginia to Vita.
Here lies the passage:
“I always have such need to merely talk to you. Even when I have nothing to talk about – with you I
just seem to go right ahead and sort of invent it. I invent it for you. Because I never seem to run out of
tenderness for you and because I need to feel you near. Excuse the bad writing and excuse the
emotional overflow. What I mean to say, perhaps, is that, in a way, I am never empty of you; not for a
moment, an instant, a single second.”
― Virginia Woolf
 Figure 1: Poem inspired by letters between Vita and Virginia
2. CONCERNING THE GREEK MYTHOLOGY OF EROS(LOVE)
This second poem is inspired by a passage in The Symposium, particularly the speech of
Aristophanes. In his speech, he tells a myth about the origins of love, describing humans as
once being whole beings who were split in two. According to the story, each person spends
their life searching for the “missing other half,” which gives love the meaning of longing and
reunion.
Figure 2: Poem inspired by Aristophanes’s speech.
3. THEN, THE FEELING THAT STAYS, AND NOW
June is the month of pride, and in this month, we celebrate the historical figures and
movements that came before, which were so very crucial in letting us love openly today.
From revolutionary uprisings to real and raw representation in the media, the queer
community has come a long way in the last 60 years. It’s important now more than ever in
these uncertain times, to draw courage from those who came before. Take Stormé DeLaverie,
who famously threw the first brick at a Stonewall, encouraging the people around her to do
something as she was dragged away by the police, the catalyst to what became one of the
most historical protests for queer rights. Nowadays, we have pride parades and events where
everyone is welcome, and although our methods of speech and activism have changed over
the years, our driving force, the passion and our desire for romantic liberty has kept us going
through hard and daunting times.In conclusion, this pride month we celebrate and commend
those who fought for our right to openly cherish and adore those we love, no matter the
gender.
Note: To read this poem properly, read it contrapuntally: first each side individually, then
both together. The poem is designed so that the two strands interact, creating multiple layers
of meaning when read in combination.
Figure 3: Then and Now
We wish everyone a happy pride month!
Picture Sources:Â
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