Selected Transcripts
Inauguration
Edens Fleurizard '20
Presidential Inauguration Student Reading
October 18, 2019
Hello, I’m Edens Fleurizard, Hobart student trustee from the Class of 2020. I elected to read the poem “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate,
I am the captain of my soul.
And so today, I remind us all of the unconquerable soul of Hobart and William Smith Colleges. We are all, every one of us, the captains of the Colleges’ soul. With that privilege comes responsibility. And so, President Jacobsen, you have the full support of Hobart students.