Tag Archives: commencement

Sending Students Out into the World

On Saturday at our commencement ceremony, I read C. P. Cavafy’s poem “Ithaka.” It was a great selection for a number of reasons.

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Commencement à la Wordsworth

Tomorrow our students graduate and they will sing a school song that draws heavily on Wordsworth. The song also has an unexpected twist not intended by the author that always gets a laugh.

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Crown My Head with Ample Square-Cap

Christopher Smart’s “On Taking a Bachelor’s Degree” is deliberately excessively self-congratulatory. Still, students should feel proud of themselves for graduating.

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No Calendar Except for this Bountiful Day

Derek Walcott’s elegy to his mother unexpectedly doubles as a Commencement poem.

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Rituals of Commencement

Robert Creeley’s graduation poem captures both the predictability and the unpredictability of young people going forth into the world.

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Class of 2011: Brains Deeper than the Sea

St. Mary’s College of Maryland President Joseph Urgo turned to an Emily Dickinson poem as he talked to graduates about the value of a liberal arts education.

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