Tears and Laughter

Perhaps because I fervently believe in Continuity opposed to fragmentation and Order opposed to isolation and chaos, I can accept without question John Donne’s truth “No man is an island, entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...” Thus I perceive in human experience, as in Alan’s, both tears and laughter. We are one with nature—generation to generation—and so we share the grief and the happiness. Alan’s gift was his three sons and their sons to keep the mystery alive, and his brief sojourn enhances our understanding of the enigma we call Life. So I drive backward in time—from miraculous birth to fulfilling maturity—seeking to capture the memories that gave his life significance. It is a voyage not to be missed. On a personal level, this is a celebration. a happening of joy, a richness of life well-lived.

Audrey Rodgers was born in New York in 1923, the daughter of David and Rebecca Tropauer. She attended Walton High School and received a B.A. degree from Hunter College in the City of New York with a Major in English. After her marriage to Allan Rodgers in 1944, they moved to Madison, Wisconsin where she taught English for three years at the University of Wisconsin. A further move brought them to the Pennsylvania State University where she taught in the English Department and earned a Ph.D. in English. Prof. Rodgers taught at Penn State for 38 years, retiring as Professor Emerita in 1994. Her specialty was modern American poets. Prof. Rodgers was also the first Women Studies Director and was instrumental in formulating the program, so that today Women Studies offers a Ph.D. and enjoys a faculty of women with Ph.D. degrees. Among Prof. publications, she is the author of The Universal Drum, The Poetry of T.S. Eliot, Hart Crane, William Carlos Williams, and Theodore Roethke; Virgin and Whore, The Image of Women in the Poetry of William Carlos Williams; Denise Levertov, The Poetry of Engagement, and several journal essays on women's poets, Emily Dickinson, and T.S.Eliot.