Commencement

I saw it done, and saw it was done well
My fingers chafing from the loud applause;
What had to come has now come to excel
The expectation, and so with it draws
A pride deserved. It could not but be so;
The is were dotted, and the ts were crossed
What happened was the last thing left to go
Which could not, from the former cause, be lost.
So it should anticlimax, yet from being
There, attentive and attending it;
From listening, and most of all, from seeing
There is a satisfaction. She is quit
Of three long years, and so deserves the prize
And it was good to see with my own eyes.