For May–June · 6poems & readings
Graduation Poems
Roads taken, rosebuds gathered, tassels turned: poems for commencement cards and speeches.
LengthForm
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost · 1916
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,And sorry I could not travel bothAnd be one traveler, long I stood
20 lines · lyric
If—
Rudyard Kipling · 1910
If you can keep your head when all about youAre losing theirs and blaming it on you;If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
32 lines · lyric
The Tassel
The QuillOak Editors
It's just a string, the tassel is,a finger's worth of thread —but look what it took to move it
8 lines · lyric
The Robe Goes Back Tomorrow
The QuillOak Editors
The robe goes back tomorrow(it's rented, like the hall);the cap belongs to no one —
8 lines · lyric
Commencement
The QuillOak Editors
They named it wrong on purpose:commencement — a beginning,held at the end of everything you've known —
8 lines · free verse
To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Robert Herrick · 1648
Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,Old Time is still a-flying;And this same flower that smiles today
16 lines · lyric