Ditto. Julie, I think you'd find yourself beset by Erinnyes-Spherians if you "go there." For chrissake they'll already be having to deal with the musical Invictus of "Land of Hope and Glory" AKA "Pomp and Circumstance."

You could of course make them laugh by doing the Polonius monologue from Hamlet.

But for a more serious suggestion, considering the world economy how about Auden's "Leap Before you Look" or Snodgrass's "The Campus on the Hill?"

OK OK! So that was only half serious. Blimey, it's a surprisingly tough assignment. I think Stevens's "The Idea of Order at Key West" is an excellent poem for putting a young person in proper mind of the world, but I suspect it might be a bit of a stretch for what you're looking for.

There's of course plenty from Elizabethan and Jacobean poetry, some I can think of from Persian and some from Victorian poetry. But I'm thinking now that the world does need a good, modern poem for such an occasion. Maybe with inspiration from all the various ideas that have emerged in this thread, you can work on supplying just such a masterpiece.

Do I assume, Julie, that Finale is absolutely out of the question?

Bill, it's called apocopated rhyme.

Thanks! I knew there was some term, but I never would have found that! Of course, now I'll have to struggle to remember it... ;)

Thanks,

Bill

Wow, great suggestions so far--most of them for serious consideration, and a few for chuckles!

"The Waking" by Theodore Roethke . . .

I don't get it, Catherine. Why is the Roethke appropriate for this occasion?

Sam beat me to my first choice. My second: "High Windows."

I guess you never had a 7 a.m. class, Roger.

April Inventory... ;)