English Professor William Cook gave his first commencement speech Saturday to a graduating class of 579 students at Rivier College in Nashua, N.H., where he received an honorary degree.
Cook, a Doctor of Humane Letters recipient, was selected as the commencement speaker because "he has made expanding contributions in English education and for promoting awareness of multicultural studies and for his achievements in the performing arts," Rivier English Professor Paul Lizotte said when he nominated Cook, according to Lori Ruediger, who works in Rivier's public relations office.
Cook's honorary degree citation described his life's work as "testimony to literature's profound power, not as a simple mirror to reflect a single image, but as a kaleidoscope whose countless shards refract a dazzling, complex stained-glass window of human experience."
The citation also said "in literature, William Cook not only finds the stuff of which dreams are made, but the stuff of which life is made."
It described Cook's diverse teaching career, which has spanned all levels of education, and the diversity of his writing, which includes many published works, scholarly reviews and his edited works.
The Trustee's Committee said Cook is the person who best represents the goals of Rivier College, Ruediger said. She said Rivier's goals are multiculturalism and a commitment to English education.
"As teacher, poet, playwright, actor, and author, William Cook interprets and shares what is best from the myriad literary traditions--from men and women, from all nations and cultures, from the remotest past to this present moment," the citation stated.
'Leap before you look'
Cook's speech was titled "A Wounded Deer Leaps Highest: An Education by Poetry." He said a transcript of his speech was not available because he does not usually "speak from a finished text."
Cook said in a telephone interview yesterday that the speech was about the "reality of struggle." It explored people's desire to understand all the possible effects of an action before taking that action, he said.
"You need to leap before you look," he said. "We're rendered powerless in a society and we want to know every possible end of our action to avert struggle and pain, so we do not act."
He said by not acting, we avert responsibility and minimize guilt. "You have to live with incomplete information about the results of your actions," he said.
He said his talk focused on poets who "deal with the necessity of choice and responsibility," including Emily Dickenson, Robert Frost, W.H. Auden, Carolyn Rogers and William Carlos Williams.
Cook said at first he was nervous about giving the speech, but then he enjoyed it. "As is always the case, you're scared to death, but once you start, you enjoy it," he said. "The terror only lasts for a minute or so. There's nothing so soothing as your own voice."
Rivier College is a 2,600-student Roman Catholic College that offers undergraduate baccalaureate and associate degrees as well as graduate and nursing degrees.
Ruediger said Lizotte knew Cook through his work with the New Hampshire Humanities Council and the Conference on College Composition and Communications, of which Cook was chair in 1992.
Cook, who was recognized earlier this year as New Hampshire's Teacher of the Year, said he will give another commencement speech on June 10 at Solebury, a secondary school in Pennsylvania.
