THURSDAY 22 JUNE 2017 • SUPPLEMENT (1) TO NO 5174 • VOL 147 Gazette Supplement

Encaenia 2017

Congregation 21 June quemadmodum erga pauperes, exclusos, for reasons of class or race or poverty, society condemnatos nos geramus? had found it more convenient to shun. A firm and fearless believer in human redemption, 1 Conferment of Honorary Degrees Praesento iurisperitum misericordem, he tells us that each of us is more than the magistrum prudentem, auctorem facundum, The Public Orator made the following worst thing we have done. He has shown quem consiliorum alius socius iustorum speeches in presenting the recipients himself also to be a writer of considerable bonique publici alibi promovendi iuxta of honorary degrees at the Encaenia on power. An orator could hardly better the Nelson Mandela posuit, Bryanum Stevenson, Wednesday, 21 June: words of his Just Mercy: ‘The true measure apud Universitatem Urbis Novi Eboraci of our character is how we treat the poor, the Degree of Doctor of Civil Law Scholae Iuris professorem, ut admittatur disfavoured, and the condemned.’ honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Iure BRYAN A STEVENSON Civili. I present a compassionate lawyer, wise Apparere homines pares nasci divinitusque leader and eloquent author, whom a fellow Admission by the Chancellor iuribus quibusdam inviolatis donatos, inter campaigner for rights and social progress in quae haec adhibeamus, vivendi et libertatis et Iurisconsultorum peritissime et another country has placed alongside Nelson expetendae felicitatis, hoc abhinc complures humanissime, qui ad iustitiam pro omnibus Mandela in distinction, Bryan Stevenson, annos palam affirmatum est. Haec quae servandam fortiter et acriter luctatus es, ego Professor at the New York University School vocantur iura hominum ut in rebus quoque auctoritate mea et totius universitatis admitto of Law, to be admitted to the honorary degree valere videantur auxilio fuit hic qui hodie te ad gradum Doctoris in Iure Civili honoris of Doctor of Civil Law. agmen honorandorum ducit. Cui adulescenti causa. Admission by the Chancellor magister sapiens Alabamensis olim indicavit Paraphrase poenam illam ultimam ideo capitalem vocari Most excellent of lawyers and humanitarians, quia ei quidem poenam darent qui capite, In the year 1776 it was famously said to be who have fought with courage and conviction id est pecunia, carerent. Ipse viros coram held a self-evident truth that all men are to guarantee justice for all, I on my own contemplatus est capitis damnatos absente created equal, that they are endowed by their authority and that of the whole University omni deprecatore, aliosque de delictis Creator with certain unalienable Rights, and admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of condemnatos quae nunquam admiserant, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Civil Law. puerosque propter minora quam capitalia pursuit of Happiness. The man who leads omni spe liberationis privatos in carcere our line of honorands today has helped to Degree of Doctor of Civil Law tota vita tabescere. Itaque quae antea legum bring this principle closer to reality. In his THE RT HON BARONESS WILLIAMS OF studiosus aliquantum a veritate remota youth he was told by a wise preceptor that CROSBY habuerat nunc cum hominibus deiectis et in that part of his country, Alabama, capital detrusis et in vincula coniectis congressus punishment meant that them without capital Sunt qui putent senatores nostros ordinis eadem iam maximi momenti visa sunt. Cum get the punishment. With his own young superioris aliquando extra fines officii sui scienter tum liberaliter in causis agendis eyes he saw men on death row who lacked excedere, vel etiam utilitatem iam omnino praestitit, ut apud iudices etiam supremos legal representation, prisoners condemned exhausisse. Quam nunc produco, cum nonnullis maximo in discrimine versantibus for crimes they had not committed, and utrique ordini interfuisset, nobis comprobare consulere valeret. Iuris Aequi, ut vocatur, children sentenced, for nonhomicidal potest illam augustiorem curiam, unde consilio usus effecit ut permulti, quos propter offences, to life imprisonment without any nuper secessit, assidue eadem volutare statum vel originem vel paupertatem civibus hope of parole. His study of law, he tells quae praecepta habemus, eadem memorare expedire videbatur neglegere, aequa iustitia us, had seemed abstract and disconnected quae nos ad rempublicam Regni Uniti fruerentur. Scelera omnia redimi posse hic until these meetings with the desperate, the spectantes maximi facimus. A parvula acri ac firma mente asseverat; unum enim dispossessed and the imprisoned made it all decursum illustrem iniit; ut omittam quae quemque nostrum pluris esse aestimandum critically important. In the altruistic pursuit of famula Isidis in annales rettulit, quanta in quam quod pessimum fecerit. Scriptor his profession he has excelled, and on several studiis scholaris effecit, ne illud quidem quoque haudquaquam contemnendus occasions successfully defended the interests dicam qualis in proscaenium theatri nostri videtur; quis enim orator melius illa dicat of the vulnerable before the highest court of prodierit, quantum denique certamen quae hic in Misericordia Iusta expressit, his land. With his Equal Justice Initiative he cum Disputantium Societate Oxoniensi mores nostros ita vere pendi si respiciamus has ensured fair treatment for many whom, inierit – sufficiat meminerimus eam idcirco

589 590 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5174 • 22 June 2017

impudentiae accusatam esse quod flagitasset discussing with him his country’s path to patefecit eo magis miramur quia antehac ut feminae admitterentur; hic in ore quidem freedom, climbed her father’s bookshelf and obscura erant vel etiam occulta aut silentio omnium esse edixit quanta animi et loquendi listened spellbound as he read to her from oppressa. Quid? Investigator sagacissimus libertas, quanta opportunitas sui promovendi the Summa Theologica, and as a babe in the vi ingenii vetera cum recentibus in scientia, omnibus ubique daretur. Inde eius vigorem pram campaigned for him to be elected to in annalibus, in librorum studiis consociat. iuvenilem agnoscamus, quod puellula in Parliament. Many saw her rising to high, Eundem velut alterum Diderotem collega genu sedens cum Jawaharlal Nehru scilicet even the highest, office. She gave Gangs of olim iuvenem appellavit valde animosum de libertate optata eius patriae loquebatur, Four perhaps a better name than they might sed summa pericula allaturum. Cui periculo quod ad summos forulos patris ascendebat, otherwise have kept, and let us remember libenter obviam eamus. quem Aquinatis Summam recitantem that under her watch as a government Praesento studiosum et bibliothecae auribus arrectis audiebat, candidatumque minister the Rhodes Scholarships were first custodem mire acrem et eruditum, infans voce fortasse puerili commendabat. opened to women. Among her many books Robertum Choate Darnton, apud Mox augebatur spes eam, cum capax imperii the titles alone – Politics is for People, Youth Universitatem Harvardianam professorem videretur, inter magistratus etiam summum without Work, God and Caesar, and many et bibliothecarium emeritum, Collegii Divi obtenturam. Eadem postea sane effecit ut others – give pause for thought. Welcoming Ioannis Baptistae socium honoris causa societates quattuorvirorum aliquid melius her back to her alma mater, adscriptum, ut admittatur honoris causa ad audirent. Illa autem, ut memoramus, I present a staunch defender of our gradum Doctoris in Litteris. praesente et officiis functa stipendia democratic system of government, Baroness Rhodesiana primum feminis quoque conferre Admission by the Chancellor Williams of Crosby, Companion of Honour licuit. Libros etiam scripsit non paucos. and Privy Counsellor, graduate and honorary Investigator exploratorque alacer, qui et Titulos respice: Res Publica pro Populo fellow of Somerville College, to be admitted annalium et scriptorum occulta loca retexisti Gerenda, Iuventus Otiosa, Deus et Caesar. to the honorary degree of Doctor of Civil Law. et interpretatus es, ego auctoritate mea et Nonne te haec monent ut nova cogites? Quare totius universitatis admitto te ad gradum iterum ad almam matrem hanc recipiens Admission by the Chancellor Doctoris in Litteris honoris causa. praesento verum columen liberae Campaigner for justice and fairness, who have Paraphrase reipublicae, Shirley Vivianam Teresam sounded the voice of moderation in times of Brittain Baronissam Williams de Crosby, national and international need, I on my own Did the former Rhodes Scholar and eximii Honoris ordinis comitem, ex intimo authority and that of the whole University intellectual high-flyer who stands next in Regio concilio, Collegii de Somerville admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor of our line ever climb the bookshelves in that alumnam et sociam honoris causa Civil Law. great library of which he was a distinguished adscriptam, ut admittatur honoris causa ad custodian? His own innumerable writings, gradum Doctoris in Iure Civili. Degree of Doctor of Letters praised in many lands and languages, would take some scaling, for they lead us to Admission by the Chancellor DR ROBERT DARNTON stellar realms of Enlightenment. But they Iustitiae et aequitatis propugnatrix, quae Ecce proximus in agmine scholaris quondam also plumb great depths, and indeed the rebus vel domi vel foris in dubium ductis Rhodianus altivolans. Num quando forulos scholarship of this doyen of French history moderationem praedicavisti, ego auctoritate et ille ascendit bibliothecae maximae, quam reaches out through manifold dimensions, mea et totius universitatis admitto te ad insigni modo custodiebat? Libri autem ab for he is an eloquent champion of the e-book gradum Doctoris in Iure Civili honoris causa. ipso scripti – quis eos numerare valet? – era. Now we, mere mortals, beckon the multas per terras linguis variis laudantur, nec scholarly world at the slightest movement of Paraphrase facile ad summos eos coacervatos ascendere one finger, and it is a great pyramid-like world Some think that our upper house possimus. Nec tantum ad astra per eos itur where the surface narrative may be enhanced occasionally oversteps its responsibilities, luminis plena, sed in profunda scientiae, by layers of documents, pictures and sounds. or has even outlived its usefulness. I now immo longe lateque hic annalium aʼ ρχηγe´της And yet the book itself lives on; for, as he introduce one who, after long service to both Gallicorum pertendit, cum hoc librorum per tells us, publishing is an ecology constantly our houses, can reassure us that that higher aethera legendorum saeculum illustret. Iam enriched, and one medium need not displace chamber from which she has recently retired nobis mortalibus datur reipublicae litterarum another. This lover of contradictions makes ‘keeps close to its heart the fundamental eruditionem minimo unius digiti ictu censorship and its agents as attractive as that principles and values of this country, and advocare, ut more pyramidis lectioni cuivis which is censored – witness his study of those flags up the things that are most important superiori identidem aliae ac novae materiae ‘forbidden best-sellers’ of pre-Revolution about the United Kingdom.’ Her preparation complurium generum opulenter subiciantur, France – and puts in a good word for the good for a distinguished career began early in scripta dico et picturas et cantus vocis taste of censors in this and other Anciens life. I speak not only of her years as a scholar lyraeque. Attamen libri supersunt. Nam, ut Régimes. Our honorand would happily at this university or of her impressive hic nos monet, quae scripta edimus mundum sum up his achievement as a librarian with achievements on the Isis magazine and at quendam conficiunt perpetuo augendum, the one word ‘openness’, yet the glory of Somerville College, as an actor with OUDS, neque unquam necesse est ut altera vulgandi much that he newly reveals as a historian is and in engagement with the Oxford Union, ratio alteram summoveat. Sed huic studioso, magnified by its previous obscurity, or even where she was accused of impertinence in ut qui repugnantiam rerum etiam diligat, its earlier suppression and secrecy. But this campaigning to get women elected. ‘This is a cordi sunt et censores et quae prohibent – id consummate detective creatively allies old University,’ she wrote, ‘where there is much quod inter ista ‘vendibilia proscripta’ videmus worlds and new in scholarship, in history and lip-service to freedom of thought, speech and – ut iudicio censorum et illius et recentiorum in book-culture. ‘Un garçon plein d’esprit mais opportunity.’ As testament to her youthful regnorum aliquam laudem tribuat. Cum se extrêmement dangereux’, reads a colleague’s activism, we know that as a small child she bibliothecarium respicit, uno modo verbo imaginary Parisian police report on him. Let sat on the knee of Jawaharlal Nehru, perhaps gaudere velit, patefactione. Multa tamen us joyfully brave the danger, as eorum quae nobis ut historiarum auctor University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5174 • 22 June 2017 591

I present a scholar and librarian of astounding praemia decoratum, ut admittatur honoris Degree of Doctor of Science energy and achievement, Robert Choate causa ad gradum Doctoris in Litteris. PROFESSOR EUGENE BRAUNWALD Darnton, Professor and Librarian Emeritus Admission by the Chancellor of Harvard University, honorary fellow of St ‘Omni custodia serva cor tuum quia ex ipso John’s College, to be admitted to the honorary Magister formae aedificandique ingeniose, vita procedit.’ Quod in proverbiis sollemniter degree of Doctor of Letters. qui operibus quasi animatis nos attonitos iussum legimus hic qui in medio agmine movisti, ego auctoritate mea et totius stat, ut qui sapientia et animi firmitate et Admission by the Chancellor universitatis admitto te ad gradum Doctoris in summa artium medicinae et disciplinarum Joyous investigator and explorer, who have Litteris honoris causa. praecellat, nobis id observandi facultatem revealed and interpreted hidden realms of dedit. Tyrannis quidem haudquaquam Paraphrase history and the written word, I on my own gratiae agendae si quid boni invite fecerunt, authority and that of the whole University An ancient architect has told us, though we grato tamen animo recordamur nonnullos admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor need no reminding, that the eye is always in rerum indagatores e manibus saevis elapsos of Letters. search of beauty. That search is made easier abhinc octoginta fere annos in fines nostros for us today in many cities by the astonishing vel in Civitates Foederatas incolumes venisse. Degree of Doctor of Letters sculpture-like buildings created by the man I At tum etiam in scholas medicinae non FRANK GEHRY now present. In Los Angeles we look beyond omnibus intrare licuit; immo hic iuvenis the venerable old Hollywood sign to the ultimus in classem universitatis Novi Eboraci Venustates visum persequi – quod vix opus new city symbol of a magnificent concert admissus est, in qua tamen paullo post est admonitu – architectus antiquus nos hall; the heavens above New York rejoice to primum locum obtinuit. Atqui naturali cordis docuit. Quod nobis hodie nonnullis in urbibus receive a newcomer in the city’s tallest and affectu permotus non statim sed postea se facilius fit cum aedificia conspicamur sculpta, most sinuous skyscraper, and in Bilbao a summam laudem obtinuisse cognovit, cum ut ita dicam, ab eo quem nunc produco. Hodie museum of glass, titanium and limestone pater et testimonium et praemium pro eo enim in urbe Angelorum vetere illo Aquifolii graces the bank of the Nervion River. Our accepisset. Iam usque ab illo tempore ab eis insigni neglecto novum municipii signum honorand, drawing much inspiration from medicis summo studio dissensit qui nimium oculis intuemur, magnificentissimum the animate world, has breathed life into inert confiderent morbos quosdam idcirco fato fieri ’Ωιδεῖον. Urbem Novum Eboracum qui and unpromising materials, for the bodies of ne praeter naturam vivendo superessemus. despiciunt caelicolae advena recepto his structures are as of skin, pulsating with Hic investigationibus suis nos non modo laetantur caeliscalpio sinuosa forma totius light and energy. No longer can we say that ad cognitionem novam, sed etiam ad novas urbis procerissimo. Est etiam inter aedificia architecture is static, for here are buildings cordis morborum curationes eduxit. Eo Flaviobrigae museum e vitro et lapide that live and move as we contemplate them collegisque eius praeeuntibus tandem ad calcario metalloque titanio exstructum, quod ever anew. Indeed in Prague one house gravissimas aegrotationes rationibus nuper ripis Nervii fluminis maximo ornamento divides itself in two bodies which join inventis allevandas processimus; unde est. Hic animantium naturam contemplatus together in dance, charming both the eye and intellegitur quomodo arteria obstructa vitam inde rebus inspiravit inertibus et adhuc the heart as the onlooker thinks on Fred and chirurgia adhibita depurgari, quam salubriter non multa artifici offerentibus, ut ea quae Ginger. Nor is simple comfort excluded; once cholesterolum illud perniciosius vel in construeret tamquam corpora cute praedita he designed furniture, in simple materials, to summo vitae periculo edomari possit. Quibus luce ac vigore ardenti moveri viderentur. gladden posterity – ‘Easy Edges’, he called his inventis homines servati sunt innumerabiles. Num igitur architectura immobilia praestat? designs – and would that that other architect, Gaudent etiam Oxonienses quod hoc acriter Haec eius opera vere vivunt et ante oculos amidst whose glories we now sit, had felt instigante una cum Harvardianis haec studia nostros commoventur iterum iterumque such pity! A commonly recurring theme in his exercere soliti sunt. mirantes. Quid? Pragae quoque domus una work is the perfect elegance of the fish, which Praesento medicum insignissimum, qui in bina velut corpora scinditur, quae ita in its marvellous age outdoes the revered cordis occulta vere patefecit, Eugenium simul eleganter saltant ut spectantibus cor antiquity of the Greeks and their arts. We Braunwald, apud Scholam Medicinae visumque delectent mimosque celeberrimos wonder at his ‘fish lamps’ that luminously live Harvardianam professorem, ut admittatur in mentem revocent. Neque cotidiani and swim out of water, or the great ‘El Peix’ honoris causa in gradum Doctoris in Scientia. usus commoda negleguntur; olim enim in Barcelona, and we confidently say that the supellectilem fecit qua posteri laetarentur, fish of the Gulf will return his admiration as Admission by the Chancellor simplici materia usus – ‘oras commodiores’ they gaze on the cluster of beautiful shapes Aesculapi vera suboles, quem omnes ubique vocabat – utinamque architectus ille, cuius forming the Guggenheim-to-be of Saadiyat novae cardiologiae patrem vocant, ego inter miracula nunc sedemus, et ipse nostri Island. miseritus esset! Inter opera huius piscium auctoritate mea et totius universitatis admitto elegantia perfecta saepissime repetitur, I present an architect of bold and uncommon te ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia honoris qui propter aetatem singularem etiam vision, Frank Owen Gehry, winner of the causa. American Presidential Medal of Freedom and Graecos artesque illorum longe superant. Paraphrase Ecce pisces lucidi extra aquam natantes, many other honours, to be admitted to the ecce Barcinonensis magnus! Ausim dicere honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. ‘Keep thy heart with all diligence,’ says the proverb, ‘for out of it are the issues of life.’ And Persici sinus pisces pulcherrima formarum Admission by the Chancellor compagine Musei Guggenheim Saadiyatensis here in the midst of our honorands is a man conspecta posthac amatorem suum ipsos Inventive master of form and construction, whose wisdom, determination and skill in invicem amaturos. whose animated creations have moved and the arts and science of medicine have allowed astonished us, I on my own authority and us to obey that solemn injunction. Tyranny Praesento architecturae magistrum animoso that of the whole University admit you to the should never be thanked for its unintended et raro ingenio, Franciscum Owen Gehry, honorary degree of Doctor of Letters. gifts, but with heartfelt gratitude we reflect Libertatis Nomismate inter multa alia on the escape of numerous scientists from oppression some 80 years ago, and their safe 592 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5174 • 22 June 2017

arrival in our country and in America. Even stuDIA NEquaquam inania esse habenda; the arena, a model for new generations of there this young man found quotas at medical finibus enim aliis researchers. She, whom Virgil might have schools, and was the last to be admitted to illa etiam a matre natura propositis said ‘the whole cohort follow’, has railed his class at New York University – a class in beNE ADIUNCta esse. Ut hic societatem against an establishment in which a woman is which he soon stood first in rank. Following cernamus divae illius et investigatricis expected to be twice as good as a man, for half other dictates of the heart, he went on his nostrae, quae rationes corporibus nostris the pay. RNA has earned new respect from honeymoon and missed the graduation innatas priusque reconditas in lucem her attention, and she has demonstrated that ceremony, only to be told afterwards of his protulit. Cavete morbi! Vestris hae copiae science is in the DNA, be we men or women. distinction, for his father had collected the vestigiis instant! Olim fere aberant, immo I present a brilliant observer of the genetic diploma for him, along with his prize. Since excludebantur mulieres ab his scientiis foundations of life, Joan Argentsinger Steitz, then he has devoted his life to countering the tractandis. Sed ex Medio Occidenti lux; haec Professor at Yale University and Foreign fatalism he found among doctors, a view that enim Minnesotae filia in harenam omnibus Member of our Royal Society, to be admitted some illnesses were simply nature’s way of exemplo successoribus impavida progressa, to the honorary degree of Doctor of Science. ensuring that we do not outstay our allotted haec ‘quam tota cohors imitata’ in collegia span of life. His research has wholly changed invectast quod duplex a feminis posceretur Admission by the Chancellor both the understanding and the treatment of labor et successus cum dimidium virorum Interpreter of the language of genes and heart disease. From him and his colleagues mercedis acciperent. Qua scrutante licet et proteins, champion of equality among have arisen ultimately the modern treatment postulARE NE moleculae illae neglegantur scientists, I on my own authority and that of acute coronary conditions through surgical et affirmare feminas DIEho NEquaquam viris of the whole University admit you to the interventions to open blocked coronary impares esse. honorary degree of Doctor of Science. arteries, and from them we have learnt the Praesento scrutatricem insignem primarum effectiveness of LDL-cholesterol reduction vitae materiarum, Johannam Argentsinger Degree of Doctor of Music in high-risk patients; such work has saved Steitz, apud Universitatem Yaleanam the lives of millions. Oxford rejoices in her PROFESSOR JUDITH WEIR professorem Regiaeque Societatis inter collaboration with Harvard in these studies, sodales exteros adlectam, ut admittatur Quidnam nos in rebus incertis versantes a collaboration for which it has our honorand honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris in Scientia. potius celebremus quam ingenium eius quae and his personal enthusiasm to thank. fabulam melicam composuit ‘Consolationes Admission by the Chancellor I present a most distinguished doctor, a true Doctrinae’ inscriptam? Maiores nostri revealer of the secrets of the heart, Eugene Linguarum molecularum interpres credebant concentum illum caelestem, quem Braunwald, Professor at the Harvard Medical προτεινουσῶν, quae inter studiosos agnoscerent tantum mathematici, auribus School, to be admitted to the honorary degree praestantissima pro aequitate propugnavisti, nostris percipi non posse. Quo magis hanc of Doctor of Science. ego auctoritate mea et totius universitatis feminam honorare decet quae de Martis admitto te ad gradum Doxtoris in Scientia stella modos attulerit, nosque docuerit hos Admission by the Chancellor honoris causa. cantus, etsi tam longo spatio commutatos, Worthy scion of Asclepius, known colonos tamen quosdam suorum Scotorum Paraphrase everywhere as the father of modern olim cecinisse. Quam ultimam in agmine cardiology, I on my own authority and that In his immortal work ‘On the Nature of videtis, haec non modo alienae stellae et of the whole University admit you to the Things’ Lucretius made great poetry out of lunae siderumque, sed terrestris etiam mundi honorary degree of Doctor of Science. atoms – and for this we thank him. But how numerorum nos participes reddidit. Facetiis much more fun he might have had if he enim acerrimis et verborum et modorum Degree of Doctor of Science had really known some of the tricks these usa fabellas sonis dulcissimis ornatas a gregarious little creatures get up to when in Scotia, a regione Serica, Germania, Hispania, PROFESSOR JOAN ARGETSINGER STEITZ suitable molecular company; to the delight of Austroslavia traductas nobis offert. Haec Lucretius quidem, qui carmen immortale orators as well as scientists, their play is said etsi modorum haudquaquam imperita est de rerum natura condidit, pulcherrimam to be much involved with ‘transcription’ and recentiorum, opera parere solet quae omnium ex atomis peperit poesim. Esto, ei gratias ‘translation’ as they head wondrously for the fere auribus vere placeant. Eadem etsi ex habemus. Sed quanto maiore gaudio vital entity of the protein. Had he known the usibus multarum gentium materiam electam scribere potuisset si bene intellexisset lady whom I now present, the poet could have haurit earum modos lepidos numerososque quales praestigias ista pauxilla atque minuta mused even more on the stuff of life. Here is a sermonibus adiungit qui nullius esse videri gregatim manipulis confectis inferrent. Huic scientist who has overturned dogma, who has possint nisi ipsius; huius enim carmina et enim et oratores et rerum investigatores laeti shown us greater complexity and beauty in rerum veritatem lucidissime explicant, et adrideant, quod moleculae quaedam, quasi that linguistic play of the molecules, a woman animos vi paene magica fascinant. Namque linguarum peritae essent, ad statum illum who blazed a trail in a world crowded by men; ‘Imbrium Adventum’ celebrans, modisque vitalem mire προτεἰνουσαι et ‘transcribunt’, and with characteristic fastidiousness she ipsis concentuque velut poeta usa, etesios ut dicitur, et ‘translationem’ exercent. Magis showed that some of what was disregarded Indicorum imbres audientibus revocat etiam et clarius fortasse by them was not just so much ‘junk’ DNA, but adventuros, oblectaturos, laetitiam laturos. de ipsa vitae materia meditatus esset was employed to good purpose by Mother In fabulis autem sua ipsius verba ita expedit si hanc novisset quam nunc produco. Haec Nature. Here is an alliance of that deity and ut omnia auscultantes intellegamus – id quod studiosa quae antea firma ac certa habita an investigator who has uncovered secret raro aliter conceditur. In officio exsequendo erant redarguit, pulchritudinem multiplicem mechanisms of our bodies. Diseases beware! hoc magni facit, ut artis musicae beneficia ludi illius quasi linguae a moleculis facti These formidable forces are on your track! aetati omni civium conferantur. Ut sapiens demonstravit, viam denique virorum tantum There was a time when women were almost quidam olim censuit, dummodo regi musica pedibus antea tritam mulier aperuit. Et ibi absent – nay excluded – from such fields of placeat, valent cives. Hac denique magistra mira quidem sed solita munditia ostendit study. But light came from the Midwest, for creata, nonne sperare nos admonet Regina quorundam ante ut inutilium relictorum this daughter of Minnesota fearlessly entered fore aliquando ut, remotis discordiae causis, University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5174 • 22 June 2017 593

concentu tandem consensuque animorum country with the arts of Orpheus, I on my own A little later in the year Oxford Today marked, rursus fruamur? authority and that of the whole University in a fascinating article, the centenary of a admit you to the honorary degree of Doctor political assassination in which an Oxford Praesento igitur inventricem creatricemque of Music. alumnus is now believed by many to have musicae pulchritudinis peritissimam, played a discreetly leading role in changing Judith Weir, Regiae Musicae Magistram, ut 2 Encaenia the course of history. This was the dashing admittatur honoris causa ad gradum Doctoris figure of Felix Yusupov, founder of the in Musica. The Public Orator delivered the following introduction to the Creweian Oration: University’s Russian Society and member of Admission by the Chancellor the Bullingdon Club. The murder victim was Public Orator: Honoratissime Domine Grigori Rasputin. Tempting perhaps wider Incantatrix artificiosa stellarum et Cancellarie, licetne anglice loqui? reflection on the possible interference by one elementorum musicae, quae artibus Orphei et country in the political affairs of another, our Reginam et patriam delectas, ego auctoritate Chancellor: Licet. author asked what claim Oxford can make mea et totius universitatis admitto te ad Public Orator: Das alte Jahr vergangen ist... to have influenced the Russian Revolution. gradum Doctoris in Musica honoris causa. How better to express our feelings than in the He leaves us with some good material with Paraphrase words of our Victorian translator Catherine which to ponder the question. What is well attested, though, is Yusupov’s pragmatic How, amidst uncertainty, could we not Winkworth, English verse in partnership here approach to his studies. When, with his finals celebrate the creator of an opera entitled with an old Lutheran song in the language of looming, he was asked by a friend whether The Consolations of Scholarship? The music our close European neighbours and relatives. the time had not come for him to do some of the spheres, said the ancients, is for most The old year now hath passed away; reading, he answered, ‘I do not think so... mortals not an audible phenomenon, but a We thank Thee, O our God, today I shall do what I do in St Petersburg. I shall mathematical idea; let us honour one who That Thou hast kept us through the year invite the examiners to breakfast, and I shall has revealed the sounds of music on Mars, When danger and distress were near. put an envelope with £100 on each one’s and has disclosed further that what we hear, plate.’ Well, in some senses at least the times, refracted through this vast distance, is a Certainly an eventful year has passed since they are a-changin, as we have learnt, or music played there by a colonising band of the last Encaenia. But, as we are so often relearnt, to sing. Perish the thought that any her Scots compatriots. But not only is this reminded, Encaenia means ‘renewal’, and of us could be seriously tempted by such an lady, who completes our line of honorands renewal often means plus ça change. The offer now. today, a communicator of those Airs from next day in 2016, you may remember, we Another Planet and of Moon and Star; she went to vote; a majority, it seems, in Oxford It would be immodest, and inadmissible, presents also an earthly universe and tells, might have preferred a different result, but for us to remind ourselves that we once with the keenest wit in words and tones alike, our graduates battled it out elsewhere and topped the World University Rankings, and I melodious tales of Scotland, China, Germany, we awoke to the vision of a future perhaps therefore pass over this minor news item in Iberia and the Southern Slavic lands. Here at once more insular and more global. The bashful silence. In our new world we continue is a modernist whose music is actually liked referendum prepared the ground for nearly to forge scholarly and pedagogical alliances by many, one who draws inspiration from three frenetic weeks of bumps, banana with other countries, and from the Near and the folk music of many lands but lovingly skins, long knives and goodness knows what Middle East comes warmth and light in some places these lively sounds and rhythms stratagems and intrigues in and behind the significant donations and sponsorships. at the service of a language inimitably her playground of what my predecessor once Comfort apart, chairs can be insecure own. Here is music that lucidly speaks, called our ‘Lower Thames Campus’. structures, whatever their antiquity and explains, and bewitches the imagination. In The victory, that time, went decisively to St importance. In the last few decades Arabic her Welcome Arrival of Rain the notes and Hugh’s, Geography; or as Oxford Today later studies at this university have attracted large beautiful orchestration evoke like a poem the reported a little less parochially, the score was numbers of students and scholars, partly anticipation, joy and fulfilment of the Indian now Oxford 27, Cambridge 14, a somewhat because of the importance of the subject monsoon. In her operas the composer’s own better record than the Boat Race, though we itself but also through the distinction of libretti are written and set so skilfully as to must give praise where praise is due, this time recent occupants of the Chair established grant us that all-too-rare bonus: we hear the to our men’s one-and-a-quarter length victory. in 1636 by Archbishop Laud while he was words! As Her Majesty’s musician, she sets It – I mean rowing – is a gentlemen’s and Chancellor. Such distinction is now rewarded great store by bringing music to all, young and gentlewomen’s sport, and I here congratulate as a munificent re-endowment comes old. A sage once opined that if the monarch the Cambridge women’s crew for beating from Mr Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain, firmly loved music, all would be well with the land. us by eleven lengths. Various journalists securing its future. Mr Al-Babtain is not only In appointing this artist as Master of her asked how we did it – the prime ministers, a businessman but a distinguished published Music, Her Majesty cannot but give us hope that is. Here the praise – or was it blame? – Arabic poet, and as East meets West we that, despite all fractures in our land, pleasant was thrown variously at the Oxford Union hear poetry even in the renaming itself of harmony will one day reign. Society, described as a ‘children’s parliament’ the professorship as the Abdulaziz Saud Al- I present Judith Weir, CBE, Master of the (plausible, thought the BBC), PPE (surely Babtain Laudian Chair. Queen’s Music, most able creator and revealer not!), or was it simply the good old network But that is not the only good news from the of the beauties of musical sound, to be of personal connections and ‘meeting the Arab world, for in November the Dubai MENA admitted to the honorary degree of Doctor of right people’? Lord Heseltine (Pembroke, PPE, Herald announced that the Mohammed Music. former President of the Union) commented at the time that he was not worried about so bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation and Admission by the Chancellor many political leaders coming from Oxford, as the University of Oxford have, with major financial support from the former, established Masterly invoker of the music of spheres long as they are up to the job. a graduate scholarship programme for and elements, who enchant Queen and gifted young students from the many Arab 594 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5174 • 22 June 2017

League countries at this ‘prestigious British Chancellor informs and advises us, and Pro- spaces, and exchanged academic cap for crash university’ – one that is expected to ‘last Vice-Chancellorships are clearly no sinecure. helmet. for centuries’. I take that ‘one’ to mean the It has been deeply reassuring to see the Fundraisers know only too well that it often scholarship scheme, but if the programme appointment of a distinguished neurologist takes money to raise money, and once again is to last so long, then I believe it follows that and clinical researcher, Professor Alastair we should gratefully remember the Lottery the University itself is expected to survive, at Buchan, added to their number to lead our Fund for what is nowadays described as a least as predicted in Dubai. Brexit strategy, where our minds and our kick-start, namely the starting donation to body politic will most need him. Archaeology and preservation are particularly the Ashmolean’s campaign back in 2013, on conjoined in these uncertain times. The In medical research itself, the Nuffield the impetus of which it has been remarkably Arcadia Fund, founded by Lisbet Rausing Department has continued to receive successful in increasing, by many times, its and Peter Baldwin in 2001, has been a leader generous support from the Oak Foundation, endowment fund. But, as the politicians say, among supporters of projects to identify towards funding posts and important projects there is still some way to go, and I hope it is and protect sites endangered by conflict, concerning Nepal, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and no abuse of my position here to recommend urbanisation and agricultural practices. Now Kenya, and Obstetrics and Gynaecology were friendship – becoming a Friend, that is, of they have made a generous grant towards our earlier this year awarded a large grant from our beautiful and immensely distinguished EAMANA project (Endangered Archaeology the Larsson–Rosenquist Foundation for a museum. in the Middle East and North Africa), which global research project to improve the health Another of the team, Professor Nick Rawlins, has already documented 100,000 sites in the and development of preterm infants. has lived up to his title of Pro-Vice-Chancellor area and will be greatly helped in its work on Among our priceless treasures is that home of for Development and External Affairs and put sites in Syria, Iran and Iraq. treasures, the Ashmolean Museum. Thanks to our seal on an agreement with the Taiwan From further east we, and more specifically the Heritage Lottery Fund numerous works Ministry of Education, thanks to whose gift the Blavatnik School of Government, whose of art have been saved for the nation and for and collaboration we shall be receiving, over extraordinary new building we greeted last us here in Oxford. I may mention the hoard of the next five years, 25 Taiwanese doctoral- year, absorb new light from the Japan and coins from the time of Kings Alfred the Great level graduate students of exceptional the Kyoto Prize. The Inamori Foundation and Ceolwulf II, found in nearby Watlington academic merit. We welcome here today the has made us a magnificent gift allowing us and kept now by the Ashmolean after the representative of that ministry and salute this to be the home of the ‘Kyoto Prize at Oxford’, necessary funds were raised. Here is English excellent partnership. inviting the laureates here and educating our coinage that seems set to keep its value; we Among the many lessons I learn from students and colleagues about the aims both might think of burying some of our own, and previous orators is that modesty should not of the prize itself and of the foundation. With waiting for its stock to rise. I commend to you be taken too far on these occasions. Let us some pride we may even claim that Oxford the touching photograph you may find on the enjoy great pride in our colleagues recently marks an end-point, for here we stand as the museum website, in which the staff may be elected to our foremost learned societies. final stage of the prizewinners’ itinerary after seen posing in elegantly grateful demeanour. they receive the award in Kyoto and speak at The British Academy is from July this We may also remember that the Lottery an international symposium in San Diego. I year to have as its new president Sir David Fund, together with a marvellously speedy may add that the Blavatnik School has also Cannadine, the editor of our homegrown and vigorous campaign and donations from benefited by a grant from the Africa Initiative Dictionary of National Biography, and local people, visitors and Friends of the for Government, to fund fellowships and recently elected Fellows of the Academy Ashmolean, helped the museum to keep scholarships for West African students include our own Michael Macdonald, and our High Street in place – that is to say the coming to Oxford to study for the Master’s Professors Stephen Broadberry, Patricia 1810 oil painting by Turner, which had been degree in Public Policy. Clavin, Judith Freedman, Elizabeth Eva there only on loan for many years. ‘One of Leach, Catherine Morgan, Duncan Snidal and At the end of May we saw the completion the most beautiful streets in Europe’, says Fiona Williams. Joining the Royal Society as of a long project. Lady Margaret Hall, which the Ashmolean, with justifiable pride. You new Fellows are Professors Tony Bell, Yvonne started life in 1879 in a single house in will see no buses in this most serene of Jones, Alison Noble and Yadvinder Malhi, and Norham Gardens, now has, thanks largely townscapes, no bars to traffic, for there is Sir Nigel Shadbolt. to its own alumni and friends, a large and no traffic. But Turner did add, ‘for colour’ beautiful complex of buildings and a new we are told, some gowned members of the Here today are a number of this year’s graduate centre. College publicity names University offset by townspeople and clergy. prizewinners, all without a doubt making among its distinguished alumni the British their early steps towards such honours as Bicycling was as yet unknown in 1810, but our politician Michael Gove, and we note that we have just noted. I am proud to invite present-day cyclists have a new figurehead students who previously had to live out your acclamation as I invite them to enjoy in none other than our Vice-Chancellor, who have now been brought back into home your approval; but before I do so I take the joined a group from Harris Manchester and accommodation. Buildings apart, LMH now opportunity to add four names – more are rode from Oxford to Cambridge, raising a has in train its pioneering foundation year, still to come – now received but too late for million pounds for student support. To save one of the University’s schemes that should inclusion in the printed programme. These me from error I have been reminded that over enable young people from under-represented days the Creweian Oration is a vernacular the centuries many vice-chancellors have groups to gain access to an Oxford education. affair, but we still honour those students who travelled between Oxford and Cambridge, have distinguished themselves in winning Carefully negotiating the banana-skins in but you, O Insignissima, are almost certainly the Chancellor’s and Gaisford prizes in Latin this our Republic of Letters, we are naturally the first to have done it on a bicycle. We and Greek prose and verse composition suspicious of presidential rule; we make congratulate you, and thank you. I feel sure – Domenico Giordani, Marina Garanin, our decisions through the strong and stable that on this occasion you compromised Thomas Kelly and Il-Kweon Sir. Please stand, institutions of Council and Congregation your otherwise admirable distrust of safe prizewinners, as we applaud! and committee recommendations. Our Vice- University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5174 • 22 June 2017 595

50 Oxonians were honoured in the New condition is better than the young man’s, As far as I can tell from previous orations, Year’s list this year, and many more among since what the latter merely hopes for, the the other duty of the Professor of Poetry the recent Birthday Honours, a list you may former has already attained; for the one at Encaenia, every second year at least, is find elsewhere, but if I may pick out one wishes to live long, the other has lived long.’ to offer something of aThought For The name from that distinguished line-up it Day. I don’t know what happens in the The influence of the President of the must be an MSc student of Kellog College, intervening years – presumably everybody United States, and his obiter dicta, on my and Paralympic gold-medalist rower, Grace goes home spiritually unfulfilled and predecessor’s rhetoric last year will have left Clough. Take a look at her story on www. morally disconsolate. Or the champagne gets an indelible impression. The State Visit has, I britishrowing.org, and be inspired. opened ten minutes earlier. But with that understand, been postponed for the moment, philosophical duty in mind, let me begin As always, there are changes at some of the but I heartily declare my partiality and agree by offering a metaphorical glimpse of two helms in our fleet. Miles Young succeeded with Tim Garton-Ash as he looks forward to items of peculiar literary interest: the first a Sir Curtis Price as Warden of New College, celebrating free speech and debate, and to large bedspread of many colours and diverse Professor Steven Cowley succeeded Professor seeing Mr Trump given, if and when he does origins from the 1950s; the second a letter Richard Carwardine as President of Corpus come, a platform at the Oxford Union. Yes, several pages in length and dated Christi College, Carole Souter succeeded Sir we do indeed like our politicians to come 10 January 1837. I’ll return to them later, and Mark Jones as Master of St Cross, and Helen and face the music. For our own leadership I leave them for now like objects awaiting King succeeded Tim Gardam as Principal of think Anthony Trollope has the best words, description and evaluation, clutched in the St Anne’s College, where Robert Chard had if I may give them an only slightly changed arms of hopeful punters queuing up in the been Acting Principal in the interregnum. context, towards the end of his political novel background of The Antiques Roadshow. In the near future we say goodbye to Alice Can You Forgive Her? ‘There is some life,’ he Prochaska, who will be succeeded by writes, ‘in starting for a long journey, and the In his recently published book The Road Baroness Royall of Blaisdon as Principal of life is the stronger and the fuller if the things to Somewhere, the cultural commentator Somerville, and to Dame Hermione Lee who and people to be carried are numerous and David Goodhart contentiously divided the retires as President of Wolfson, handing over troublesome.’ population of these islands into ‘Anywhere’ to Philomen Probert as Acting President until and ‘Somewhere’ people, the ‘Anywheres’ This is a year in which the Orator relishes the Tim Hitchens takes up the presidency in early being in the main an educated, liberal, privilege of handing over to the Professor of summer 2018. Hilary Boulding will succeed metropolitan and culturally fluent group, Poetry for the second part of his Oration. My Sir Ivor Roberts as President of Trinity paying for their skinny mochaccinos Lord Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, colleagues College, and Roger Goodman, currently Head and artisan rolls with mobile phones and friends, I end where I started, with of the Social Sciences Division, succeeds and contactless debit cards in the hipster renewal. This year we mourned the loss of Margaret MacMillan as Warden of St Antony’s. bars and pavement cafes of the nation’s Professor Sir Geoffrey Hill, who two years bohemian quarters, the ‘Somewheres’ being Encaenia is in essence a joyous occasion, ago stood in the box opposite mine and a traditional, socially unadventurous rump but this is a day on which we also remember with eloquent economy acknowledged the of folk, often rooted in smaller regional friends and colleagues who are no longer University’s recognition of ‘intrinsic value’ in communities and adopting the ostrich with us. Among those who have died during its choice of those persons of international position when confronted with the prospect this past year let us call to mind Pamela Sue distinction whom it has chosen to honour at of a changing world. As an articulation of Anderson, Fellow of Mansfield and Regent’s this ceremony. I am confident that he would an apparently widening faultline in British Park, Jean Austin, Fellow of St Hilda’s, Francis have given the same acknowledgement society, and as a way of interpreting recent Barnett, Fellow of Trinity, James Dalton, today. We now have a new Professor of Poetry, national ballots, the model was as divisive Fellow of Queen’s, Cliff Davies, Fellow of whom it has been our pleasure and our good as its own schema, characterising millions Wadham, John Davis, Warden of All Souls, fortune to read and to hear lecture in this, of people by way of loosely fitting, off-the- Jan-George Deutsch, Fellow of St Cross, Sir his first year of office. Let us now turn from peg labels and hastily sketched attitudes. John Hanson, Fellow of Green College, Derek prose to poetry, as I give you Professor Simon The theory might have a counterpart in Parfit, Fellow of All Souls, Geoffrey Raisman, Armitage. anthropologist Ralph Linton’s distinction Fellow of Oriel, Kurt Schoenenberger, Fellow CREWEIAN ORATION 2017 between ascribed and achieved lives; that is of Oriel, Barrington White, former Principal of to say between those who perform according Regent’s Park, and Miles Williams, Fellow of The Professor of Poetry delivered the to the expectations occasioned by their Hertford. I fear the list may, sadly, be longer, Creweian Oration 'in commemoration of the situation at birth, and those who attain a but here are the names I have from personal Benefactors of the University according to the position in life beyond what would have knowledge and through studying the Gazette. intention of the Right Honourable Nathaniel, been anticipated or predicted. It’s another Yes – I have reached the age at which one Lord Crewe, Bishop of Durham'. crude partition, but from time to time such turns to that page first. My Lord and Chancellor, allow me to echo categorisations can offer a finger-in-the- We wish many long, happy, active and, if and endorse those expressions of thanks wind test by which we might reflect on our we may be so fortunate, collaborative years made by the Public Orator. And to the attainments, and the extent to which we to all those who retire this year. Your orator University’s generous benefactors, it is my have performed according to expectations, was elected at the age of 66, and in his first pleasure to acknowledge how you have or despite them. And a ceremony such year of office has reached 67. At such an age created opportunities that are impossible as this, orchestrated by one of the oldest one’s thoughts focus willy-nilly on inter- to anticipate or quantify, for individuals educational and cultural institutions in the generational fairness, and the classicist you might never meet and for lives yet to be known universe, would seem to be an ideal turns, well, perhaps not quite so willy-nilly, lived. So like a fussy parent concerned that opportunity for such reflection. Put simply, to Cicero’s thoughts on old age. In his his offspring will forget to write letters of how many of us sitting here today grew up undying treatise De Senectute that orator of gratitude for gifts and presents, let me thank with the idea that our participation in such orators has his principal oldie, Cato, say with you on their behalf and assure you of their an occasion was always a possibility, perhaps unimpeachable logic that ‘the old man’s appreciation. 596 University of Oxford Gazette • Supplement (1) to No 5174 • 22 June 2017

even a likelihood, and how many of us are remove the hoods from all the gowns and as a metaphor for vanity and selfishness, pinching ourselves? robes presented to him from his various the idea of a man sleeping soundly under a honorary degrees, and have them made into counterpane of praise and commendations I invoke this idea in relation to two a quilt. has an almost biblical irresistibility about it. anniversaries. 60 years ago the American poet Robert Frost received an honorary degree The aforementioned letter was posted in My conclusion is a short appeal, based from Oxford University. Frost was 83 in 1957, Yorkshire and its red wax seal broken open in on the assumption that all of us in this and by that stage not just a grand old man Westmorland a few days later. The recipient magnificent venue today, whether having of letters and a national treasure – probably was the poet-laureate-in-waiting William arrived here by determination or design, the last poetic national treasure America Wordsworth and the sender one Branwell have benefited from being on the receiving would recognise – but also something of Brontë, black-sheep brother to the soon- end of compliments and have derived an ambassador both for literature and the to-be famous sisters, the boozer, drug addict confidence from congratulation. And that United States, his voice and opinions being and scandal-maker whose 200th birthday we, the complimented and congratulated, heard within increasingly influential circles. we celebrate, or at least acknowledge, in six rather than bed down in the blanket of It is plausibly suggested that at the poet’s days’ time. Like Frost, Branwell’s life was accomplishment, should always be ready to bidding, letters from President Eisenhower’s also achieved, but in the downhill direction. respond in kind, no matter that credit and office had made both Oxford and Cambridge In his younger years, effortlessly articulate acknowledgment might be clumsily sought, University aware that Mr Frost would be and precociously talented, he was destined or unconventionally petitioned, or asked for travelling to England and would be available for stardom in one or possibly both of the by awkward tongues. for recognition, and that both establishments noblest artistic pursuits of the day – poetry duly obliged by coughing up the appropriate and oil painting. His father, Patrick Brunty, accolade. It’s not for me to speculate on the first of ten children born to a farm- whether this university was once amenable labourer in County Down, had achieved the to such high-powered suggestions. And in near-impossible by advancing from rural any case we live now in more transparent and remote Drumballyroney to Cambridge and accountable times; I can’t imagine the University by dint of faith and hard graft present American administration makes alone, so for his own gifted, favoured many requests on behalf of its poets these and home-schooled son, the sky was the days – despite its obvious love of literature limit. Branwell’s letter to Wordsworth is a and the arts – but even if it did, those desperate and at times embarrassing plea overtures would surely fall on deaf ears. In for recognition, and the extract of a poem he Frost’s case, even if we can’t be certain about includes, entitled The Struggles of Flesh with the circumstances leading to his award, we Spirit, is a dreamy and clichéd effort by an can, I think, be fairly confident about the easily influenced 20 year old under the spell poet’s eagerness to accept it. Frost’s literary of the Romantics. From his headquarters in persona was of a straight-talking man-of- Grasmere, fortified by steep-sided fells and the-land, a poet dispensing nuggety truths behind the moats of deep, glacially incised and fireside wisdom in the form of metrical lakes, Wordsworth chose not to reply. Just quatrains and rhyming couplets, a poet as Blackwood’s Magazine chose to blank referred to by Oxford’s Deputy Public Orator Branwell’s repeated offers of his services as at the time (in Latin, of course) as a farmer a contributor. Branwell was a second-rate and a ‘husbandman’ in love with the solitude poet and a middling painter, but he could and neighbourliness of the countryside. This definitely write and he could definitely draw. in contrast with versions of Frost the person, Unfortunately, something in his character characterised by some biographers as a couldn’t deal with the rejection, which often supreme egotist, sycophant and back-stabber, came in the form of resounding silence, and always keen to hitch up the greasy pole of his decline into an alcohol- and laudanum- fame, preferably by standing on the heads of induced paranoia and psychosis is now the contemporaries, especially those he judged stuff of legend, book, film, television drama, to be rivals. t-shirt, teapot and other dark-humoured or queasy memorabilia. Frost was a poet of delineation, someone who emphasised hierarchies, structures, Branwell Brontë’s plea to the great bard was demarcations and stratifications in the form ill judged in its tone and style, but came from of walls, fences, roads, gates, times, seasons, someone whose only audience had been boundaries and zones, and on the page the sheep and the moors, who was looking at least tended to position himself on the to find recognition and affirmation beyond humanitarian and benevolent side of those his immediate circumstances, but had none lines. His was an achieved life, if not from of the contacts or the courtesies of the day nowhere and nothing then from relatively to make himself known or heard. Robert unassuming beginnings, an achievement Frost’s first thought, once he began climbing embodied and at the same time parodied the rungs of success, seems to have been to by one of the items I dangled in front of you pull the ladder up behind him. A charitable earlier. By later life Frost had become a serial interpretation of his quilt of many colours collector of awards, prizes and decorations, might be to think of it as an expression of and at some point, it is reported, decided to his insecurities and vulnerabilities, but,