When power corrupts, poetry cleanses This day，devoted to the memory of Robert Frost，offers an opportunity for reflection which is prized by politicians as well as by others and even by poets.
For Robert Frost was one of the ①granite figures of our time in America.He was supremely two things: an artist and an American.
A nation reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors，the men it remembers.
In America our heroes have customarily run to men of large accomplishments.
But today this college and country honor a man whose contribution was not to our size but to our spirit: not to our political beliefs but to our insight: not to our self－esteem but to our self－comprehension.
In honoring Robert Frost we therefore can pay honor to the deepest sources of our national strength.
That strength takes many forms，and the most obvious forms are not always the most significant.
The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the nation's greatness，but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable，especially when that questioning is disinterested，for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.
Our national strength matters: but the spirit which informs and controls our strength matters just as much.
This was the special significance of Robert Frost.
He brought an ②unsparing instinct for reality to bear on the ③platitudes and ④pieties of society.
His sense of the human tragedy ⑤fortified him against self－deception and easy consolation.
"I have been，" he wrote，"one acquainted with the night."
And because he knew the midnight as well as the high noon，because he understood the ordeal as well as the triumph of the human spirit，he gave his age strength with which to overcome despair.
At bottom he held a deep faith in the spirit of man.
