Henry Jero
e
Stockard
He was a man wlm lived a beautiful life.
Although his writings were not many, they
are regarded as being the most beautiful
poetry ever composed in North Carolina.
SOMETHING more than rabbits
have come from the high hills
of old Chatham, for from this
soil sprang Charles Manly. Gover¬
nor of his State. Mathias E. Manly.
United States Senator. Clarence
Poe. most eminent of all editors
of agricultural journals on the field
of the Nation, and Henry Jerome
Stockard. sweet singer of songs;
a shy, sensitive and retiring soul,
who lived a beautiful life, one
which found its best expression in
the serenity of his soul. His char¬
acter may be epitomized in one
phrase: He loved the beautiful;
and his favorite and oft-repeated
verse from Holy Writ was, "And
let the beauty of the Lord our God
be upon us.”
The annals of his life, like those
of the poor, referred to by the poet
Gray in his immortal Elegy, were
“short and simple.” Born on a
farm in 1858. his boyhood was
passed under the tuition of his
godly mother, who inspired in him
the will to achieve, who caused
him to take for his motto the Latin
maxim, “Invenian viam aut
gacian" — I will find a way or
make one. and Stockard did both.
He attended high school at
Graham, going thence to the Uni¬
versity where he fell under the
magnetic spell of that great pro¬
fessor of English literature, Thom¬
as Hume, who encouraged the
budding youth to put forth the
best that was in him; and there¬
after Stockard sought for the
beautiful with all the passionate
ardor which inflamed the soul of
Sir Launfal as he sought the Holy
Grail.
Bogin Career as a Teacher
Leaving the University, he com¬
pleted his education at Elon Col¬
lege, whence he took his degree as
Master of Arts and thenceforth
entered upon his great career as
teacher, college president and
premier poet, his genius being
recognized by Wake Forest Col¬
lege which honored itself by con¬
ferring upon this distinguished
scholar the honorary degree of
Doctor of Literature.
«I
i II. LAWRENC E
As did our brilliant Governor
Charles B. Aycock in Wayne.
Stockard served as County Super¬
intendent of Schools in Alamance,
from which field he was called to
become assistant professor of Eng¬
lish at the University — for Doctor
llume knew a young scholar of
romise when he saw one. Later
c served in a professorial chair
in a college at Fredericksburg until
1900. when he returned to his
native State and began his con¬
nection with Peace College which
was to continue so long as he lived
He began his service here in 1900
as professor of Latin, a chair which
he occupied until 1907 when he
was elevated to the presidency, in
which capacity he continued until
1912, when he resumed his former
st as head of the department of
tin. a position he continued to
fill with distinguished ability until
his lamented death.
I do not claim that he was a
great college president. Few |>oets
have that executive and adminis¬
trative ability so necessary for the
head of an educational institution,
and Stockard's genius lay in quite
another direction. But he was one
of the sweetest spirits who graced
a professorial or presidential ofilce
in our State and he became beloved
of every daughter of the Common¬
wealth who came under his benign
influence. He was long connected
with Peace College, and during
the years he wrote his name deeply
upon the hearts and into the lives
of his pupils, and one of his ex¬
quisite songs— "A Song to Peace"
will ever live in the hearts of its
alumnae.
Real Poetic Genius
Stockard was an educator of
eminence, and he possessed the
real poetic genius. If the reed he
piped was thin, its notes were none
the less sure and true. Micah was
a so-called "minor prophet." yet
if he had written nothing but the
one verse, "what doth the Lord
require of thee, but that thou deal
justly, love mercy and walk hum¬
bly with thy God." he would have
immortalized his name. And if the
volumes of verse Stockard left be¬
hind when he winged his way to
higher spheres are but thin in
pages, they possess the lustre of
the genuine, for they glitter and
gleam with the spark of the divine
genius even as the facets of the
diamond glow with the fire which
distinguishes the pure gem. He
published two small volumes:
"Fugitive lines" and "A Study of
Southern Poetry." the last being
used as a textbook in schools and
colleges; and at the time of his
death he had another volume in
process of preparation.
Selections from his verse were
deemed worthy of inclusion in
Stedman's Anthology of American
Verse (which was praise from Sir
Hubert!); in "Representative Son¬
nets of American Poets"; and in
"Songs of the South.” As was
true of Wordsworth and Keats, his
art found its best expression on the
field of the sonnet, and of him an
eminent critic wrote: "Fraught
with tenderness too deep for tears,
and with sadness of the unsatisfied,
throbbing with anguish of the un-
attained. his poetry pulses with
the still sad music of humanity.
There is in it the appealing pathos
of 'Lost Eden’s Loved.’ the dumb
aspirations of unconscious nature,
and all the hope and melancholy
of unconscious man. 1 1 is best is
bound to rank with the best in
literature." High, but quite de¬
served. praise. Some of his verses
appeared in such premier Ameri¬
can publications as Harper's. Scrib¬
ners. the Century, the Atlantic
Monthly, and other leading maga¬
zines.
Quite recently I did an article
on Donald Parson, another Caro¬
lina maker of sonnets, but 1 found
that one of his best poems was in
the form of a quatrain to the Eagle,
from which I quoted. Now com¬
pare Stockard on the same theme:
"Brooded on crags, his down
the rocks.
(Continued on page 16)
