Poole, Cyril Francis

CONVOCATION, OCTOBER, 1987
CYRIL FRANCIS POOLE
to be Doctor of Letters

In the final paragraph of a volume of his essays entitled In Search of the Newfoundland Soul Cyril Francis Poole speaks of the island and its inhabitants in these words: "The carved and rugged headlands of this sea-worn rock witness to the might and fury of the tempest. The marks it has made on our souls are as deep, and perhaps as abiding, as the seams in the the granite cliff." In laying bare the collective psyche of the Newfoundland people, the author offers us a startlingly candid glimpse of the landscape of his own mind and heart. His droll humour and sly wit reveal a fervid love for his native province and an aching compassion for the men and women who wrestled with the sea in a match that they knew they could never quite win. His tales of the Newfoundland of his youth are laced with a poignant mix of wistful regret and grateful relief that the days of yore cannot be relived. The style is irreverent, the tenor often tongue-in-cheek; but lightly hidden beneath these artifices we find woven a tapestry of truth, a patchwork documentary of a people unique to this country. He exposes the Newfoundland soul for all to see; and therein we find strength and courage and fierce determination even as we laugh at foibles and superstitions and faux pas. For this preservation of a segment of this mosaic that is Canada, this country owes the author its sincere thanks.

Cyril Poole is, by trade, a philosopher and academician. He has held the chair in philosophy at both Bishop’s University and Mount Allison. At the latter institution, he rose to become Dean of Arts and Science and later Vice President (Academic). And now he is home once more, serving Newfoundland as Principal of Sir Wilfred Grenfell College of Memorial University on the island’s west coast. In his various popular works of humor, among them The Time of My Life, A Yaffle of Yarns, and Saints and Sleeveens, we catch occasional glimpses of this aspect of the man. I daresay that every philosopher who has ever lived has grappled with questions of knowledge, reality, and, above all, truth. In an essay toying with this last topic Cyril Poole playfully confides that "Truth is not what it’s cracked up to be." He recounts several situations in which truth-telling is not the wisest course of action. "Romantic love," he asserts, "is (an) arena in which truth is fortunately a stranger. A search of romantic literature has turned up not one example of such truths as the following: 'Darling, you’re the most beautiful woman in the world –- except for your buck teeth...'" He concludes, therefore, that: "Truth is sand and grit in the delicate gears of society. It might indeed make you free, but it would also leave you without a friend in the world. To tell the truth, I don’t see what’s the good of it."

Humorist, philosopher, diarist of the Newfoundland experience –- he is all these things and more. A lover of beauty and its embodiment in pictorial art, he has been the driving force behind the establishment of Newfoundland’s first School of Fine Arts to be located at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College in Corner Brook. Even as I speak, the building that will serve as the center of this new programme is being erected. Many notable works of art have already been acquired and lie in storage or hang in the halls of the college’s original building, awaiting their new residence. Cyril Poole will soon have his dream, and all of eastern Canada will share in the cultural wealth that will accrue.

It is with great pleasure that we at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John honour this exemplary individual by bestowing upon him this day the degree Doctor of Letters.

From: Honoris Causa - UA Case 70, Box 2