I've never given a commencement speech, but as a college senior, I judged the entries from fellow students who wanted to speak, along with a committee of faculty.  One entrant wanted to give a real downer of a speech, a doom-and-gloom scenario about all the traps waiting for us in the future.  Trouble was, he wanted to open the speech by reeling off three paragraphs of dire predictions, each one ending with Breathe deep the gathering gloom, a line