Each of Us Must Climb Our Separate Mountain

By William Byrd

Each of us must climb our separate mountain
To reach at last our own extended view.
We can be no more than what we are,
Yet that is quite enough for us to do.

The world is far too great for comprehension,
And so we only know what we can know.
But given the abilities we're given,
That's still a long and weary way to go.

Yet on the way, how beautiful the moments!
How good it feels to have some skill or art!
How wonderful to pause in awestruck wonder
At what must fill the unsuspecting heart!

And so we're proud of each of you today
For all you've learned, and all you've tried to learn.
Knowledge brings the deepest satisfaction,
Not least because it's something that you earn.

Hail to the Graduate

Hail to the graduate!
Looking great and feeling fit!
Oh, so proud and full of it!
This day belongs to you.

You've been a lovely friend and brother.
In fact, I wouldn't have another.
In fact, I can't--just ask our mother.
But better? There are few.

So go along and have some fun,
Learn some new things on the run,
And should you meet some special one,
Keep me in your heart, too.

To Graduate Is like a Crow

By Domenico Scarlatti


To graduate is like a crow
Flying up into a tree.
Once he gets there he can see
All the children down below.

To graduate is like a ewe
Climbing up a rocky hill.
Up and up she goes until
She's at the top and sees the view.

To graduate is like a frog
Hopping up from stair to stair.
He doesn't know until he's there
How high he is above the bog.

Up and up and up we go
From grade to grade, from hop to hop.
Why do we hop all the way to the top?
When we get there, we will know.

I Want to Make It to My Graduation

By Dimitri Shostakovich



I want to make it to my graduation
Even though I haven't long to live.
I want that one last hard-earned celebration
To give me all the joy that it can give.
I want your pride around me like a song,
To walk within its passion and its beauty,
To feel its pleasure in me sweet and strong,
To be possessed of all of those who love me.
And then I want the lazy afterglow,
The long, slow chatter of the waning day,
The easy confidence of those who know
That something precious has been put away.
Death's a dawn in that its golden light
Reveals the loveliness long hid by night.

Graduations Sometimes Can Be Sad

by Barry Taylor.

Graduations sometimes can be sad,
Removing from our world a world of friends,
An instant that, in golden garments clad,
Divides our early yearnings from our ends.
Underneath our confidence and pride
A sense of loss like music haunts the heart,
Telling us that what we are inside
Is presently a place we must depart.
Our years have yielded paradise and pain,
Nor will we ever taste their truth again.

Graduations Can Be Bittersweet

by Barry Taylor


Graduations can be bittersweet,
Reminding us of all that's come and gone:
All our battles, whether lost or won,
Days of bliss, and days we would delete.
Underneath our pride there is the sense,
Almost like a wound, of something past,
The beauty of a time that cannot last,
In which we shared the joys of innocence.
Open vistas lie before our eyes;
Now is the time for hopes and for goodbyes.

Graduations Are like Stepping Through

By Turlough O'Carolan


Graduations are like stepping through
A veil into another, larger room.
Behind, where we can never go again,
Are memories like a shipwreck full of gold.

Strange, the harmonies of pride and sadness,
The dawn and sunset of the new and old,
The bittersweet good-byes while looking forward
To things unseen beyond the ridge of time.

Numb with too much life we stagger through them,
Time passing in the ordinary way.
Relatives and friends all swarm around us,
Buzzing round the silence of the real.

And once the ceremonies and the parties
Are over, and the sweet days come and go,
All we've lost comes back to us as music
Of love departed, never to return.

Graduation's on a Mountaintop

By William Byrd.


Graduation's on a mountaintop.
Rarely does one get a better view.
All that is in front of me is new.
Dreams fade into haze rather than stop.
Underneath are queasiness and fear
As familiar landscapes fall away.
The price of moving on is just that gray
Intensity that grips as new eyes near.
On me for just this moment all is grace:
Now I rest, and that sweet joy embrace.

Graduation's Reason to Rejoice

by Barry Taylor

Graduation's reason to rejoice,
Remembering what lies beyond our ends.
And so yours gives occasion to my voice,
Delighting in the gift of being friends.
Underneath your pleasure is my pride,
As yours remains the rock on which I stand.
The window through which I can see inside
Is hung upon the mirror in your hand.
One cannot be one without the other,
Nor can we be ourselves without another.

Graduation Ought Not Be an End

By Thomas Tallis

Graduation ought not be an end,
Replacing what within we might achieve.
After all, the good that we intend
Does much to serve the good that we receive.
Underneath the mask of a degree
A person must perform with just the skill,
The knowledge and the art that he or she
Internalized through pluck, hard work, and will.
On what we are will rest what we become,
Nor do we have much else to draw upon.

Graduation Isn't Gradual

Anonymous



Graduation isn't gradual.
In fact it's quite abrupt, a sudden shock.
It's more like rushing towards a waterfall:
One moment we're afloat, and then we're not.

Sure, we see it coming up ahead,
The water roaring into the abyss.
We make a joke and look away instead,
Unable to acknowledge what this is.

And then the moment's past, and we're the same.
Everyone is smiling, sunny bright.
Someone kisses us and calls our name,
And then we think, well, everything's all right.

But life is like that: things get smashed inside,
And we don't even know it. Foolishly,
We think we're in it only for the ride,
Yet mourn for all that can no longer be.

Graduation Is a Time

By Claudio Monteverdi


Graduation is a time
For feeling very proud,
For thinking lots of lovely thoughts
And saying them out loud.

It's a time for feeling love
About to overflow,
And just before it leaps its banks,
To let the loved one know.

And so I'm very proud of you
For being who you are,
For making something of yourself,
For making it this far.

I'm proud because I am a part
Of everything you do.
This time's the time to say how much
In love I am with you.

(Note: Parents can simply change "I" to "we," and change the last line to, "Love we have for you.")