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On the Carpet
- Gallaudet University Press
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32 On the Carpet Bob’s ASD yearbook for 1940 described him as a “great dreamer,” “which accounts for his talent for tardiness.” He had adjusted well to the challenges of developing a “Deaf identity.” He was even designated the class poet,” and he wrote a tribute in verse to the school, which helped prepare him well for college. But a dreamer he remained as he entered Gallaudet College in the fall of 1940. His goal was to pursue an intense study of poetry. As he wrote in one of his student essays: My desire was to read poem after poem and book upon book of belles lettres. I had a plan all mapped out and by which I would first study the Classical writings of ancient Greece and Rome, next the works of the Renaissance artists, and from there continue on through Shakespeare and the Elizabethans to what I deemed to be the peak of all creative writings in poetry , the Romanticists. I was to be another Shelley and already I had decided to live the kind of life he had led in Oxford.1 Percy Bysshe Shelley, the young English Romantic poet, was rebellious and fought against political injustice. Bob identified with this. Like Shelley, he had a transformation in his life at the age of ten. The poet had been sent away to a boarding school On the Carpet 33 where the power of free thought led to his becoming a visionary —and a daydreamer. Shelley, too, loved sailing, spending summers at Lake Geneva with another of Bob’s admired poets, Lord Byron. Oddly, Shelley could not swim, and he died tragically during a sudden storm while sailing out to visit friends. His final, unfinished poem was titled “The Triumph of Life.” Dreaming of being “another Shelley” was a radical path for Bob to follow. Shelley, for example, was expelled from Oxford for his rebellious writings. Before Bob could begin to even think of writing anything, however, he would need to complete Gallaudet College’s “preparatory year” curriculum. Many deaf students in this era came from residential schools and were not fully ready for the rigors of college work. Bob’s roommates were Don Wilkinson, also from ASD, and Dan Van Cott, who had attended a public high school in New Rochelle. The Prep Exams, which had to be passed in order to qualify for freshman year, were scheduled for the first Saturday morning after the new students arrived on campus. The night before the exams, Bob was so excited to have the opportunity to talk sports and tell stories with his new friends that he ignored head senior Frank Sullivan’s reminder about the tests and his advice to get a good night’s sleep. A good mark on the exams would increase their chances of being promoted to the freshman class, Frank told the preps, and if they did well, they might even skip the prep year entirely. The next morning, another new friend, Ed Carney, woke him up for the Prep Exams. Bob said, “To hell with the exams!”2 He went back to sleep and never regretted the decision—for as he would soon realize, the prep year would prove to be invaluable to him in adjusting to college-level work and developing good study habits. [44.200.196.114] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 20:41 GMT) 34 Teaching from the Heart and Soul The obligatory hazing for preps at Gallaudet took the form of good-natured teasing. It included having to memorize an assigned name and being ready to recite it fluently in fingerspelling when any upperclassman approached. “From now on,” said one upperclassman to Bob shortly after his arrival on campus , “your name is Benjamin Bergonsolus Benzogasolini.” Bob liked this assigned name. The future poet saw it as alliteration with an Italian flavor. When older students approached him, he would obligingly spell out the name and be sure to dot the i’s with a pointed finger. The repeated action left him with the ingrained ability to spell his “name” more than sixty years later when he met older alumni. A dramatic play was also required as part of the hazing, and the preps were expected to perform for the upperclassmen. In the fall of 1940, the war, then limited to Europe but threatening to engulf America, was on everyone’s mind. On the third floor of College Hall was a large meeting room known as the Lyceum. With Bob...