University of Virginia Library

Degrees To 1973 Class

Dickey Asks For 'Upthrust' Man,
Warner Urges ROTC To Be Watchful

Poet James Dickey called
for the return of "upthrust
man," who recognizes his "true
possibilities and dares to use
them," in his Baccalaureate
address on the Lawn June 2.

"The Sistine Chapel isn't as
valuable to me as the picture of
Ed White, the first astronaut to
walk in space, grinning with
pure delight and exuberance"
following his achievement. Col.
White was the epitome of
"upthrust man," Mr. Dickey
said.

"I would like to produce a
very real change of heart,
mind, and guts. Men should
shake off the frustration,
boredom and sterility
engendered by the almost
overwhelming problems facing
the world and enter a new
vitality," Mr. Dickey said.

He characterized this
condition of "upthrust" as
"setting of reason on fire,"
"calculated recklessness,"
"self-discipline," "wit, humor,
and imaginative style,"
"physical activity," and
"triumph."

He said the only "ringing
call to social action" that he
could issue to the 1973
graduating class was "the
chance to possess more of
yourselves than you already
have."

"I would like to call now
for a life of sun and steel and
action, of weightlifting and
running and contemplation,
and the most stringent and
exuberant self-discipline," Mr.
Dickey said, "for self-discipline
makes true passion possible
and true passion is what we
most lack.

He said that the "do your
own thing" attitude is not
always a benefit to either the
individual or to society. It is
"quite often not a call to
action of a self-disciplined or
creative kind, but simply an
excuse for passivity, a call to
inaction."

Mr. Dickey's speech marked
only the second time that
someone from outside the
Grounds has given the
Baccalaureate address.

At ROTC commissioning
exercises held earlier in the
afternoon on the Lawn, U.S.
Navy Secretary John Warner, a
University Law School
graduate, urged 60 ROTC
cadets to be "watchful" in
their future military positions.

He said that their Soviet
counterparts are of "equal
measure to you in training,