Nobel Prize-winning poet Joseph Brodsky delivered the commencement address at the University of Michigan in 1988, opening with one of the most striking first lines in commencement history. As a Russian dissident who had been exiled from the Soviet Union, sentenced to hard labor for 'social parasitism,' and who eventually became the U.S. Poet Laureate, Brodsky brought a unique perspective on the gap between rules and reality. This opening set the tone for an address that would be strikingly different from typical graduation fare — neither reassuring nor optimistic, but deeply honest about the nature of the world his audience was entering. Brodsky went on to offer specific counsel drawn from the Ten Commandments and Seven Deadly Sins, arguing that these ancient guides, however impalpable their source, are more reliable than the penal code alone.