The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-06
FUGITIVE CRIES"
MP. HARRY JEROME STOCkARD'S
NEN BOOKS our.
An Appreciative Criticism of the Fam
Gus North Carol ma Poet.

| Gus NCTtn SdTOt ia FoCt'
An Appreciative Review of Stockard
Fugitive Cries"
| To the Editor:
A professor in one of the leading North
ern colleges, a scholar eminent IN the
scientific world, himself a Southerner by
| birth and in his sympathies, once remark
ed to me that it was not in the field of
science or of letters that the genius OF
the South has been exercised, but in
politics and statescraft. This was espe-
| cially true before the war. The existing
conditions did not invite the talented and
ambitious into the most purely intellectu-
al pursuits in those days when we looked
| to New England for our teachers, and
with a certain magnificent pride of ig-
norance held the scholar or literateur IN
slight esteem. For twenty years now we
have been passing through the transition
period. and some of our best talent is
winning laurels in the field of literature.
But recognition of any literary excellence
at home is still more tardy among us
than in the Northern States, and too of
ten we have to discover the literary talent
| in our midst through the recognition that
| it receives elsewhere. Under such con-
ditions it is little wonder that the South
! has produced but few men Of letters COM
pared to the number that the North has
produced. The reactionary period has
brought to the front a number of excel
| lent story writer's, but the poets-worthy
| in any degree to be classsed as such
may still almost be numbered on the
| fingers of one hand. There is a standard
| Of poetry that recognizes only the great
| est, that admits to England but twelve
| or thirteen versifiers worthy to wear the
| poets crown, that does not admit Bry-
| ant, Longfellow or Poe into the sacred
| galaxy. But more Hberal-or it may be
more appreciatiye-spi recognizes other.
| poets than these greatest. America has
| not yet produced the equal of Byron or
| Tennyson. nor the South the equal of
Longfellow or Bryant, but there are some
| whose names will appear in future an
| thologies. Among these Sidney Lanier
| perhaps stands most prominent of South
| ern writers. Like Keats, he loved the
| beautiful, and his poems are the product
| of the higher aestheticism. And North
1 Carolina has produced a poet Of the
l aesthetic school well worthy to wear the
| laurel Fugitive Cries." by II. J. Stock
| ard, is the title of little volume just
| from the press of G. NJ. Putnam's Sons,
| Of New York.
| 1t is a collection of short poems that
| have for the most part appeared in the
| Century and other magazines. Nearly
| all are marked by a finished classicism
| OF expression. Inasmuch as poetry lies
| in the use of beautiful words, and ade-
| quate to the expression of the beautiful
| idea in their suggestive significance, they
| show the master hand. 1t is true that
genius for word culling may not always
| produce the popular poem The abstract
beauty Of the lines, the euphOny and
| rythm may stir no emotion. But with all
| poets, in as far as this is true, it is in
the chosen theme and not in the treat
| ment. And the poetic principle lies not
| the less in verse that does not touch the
| emotional.
Shelly's CLOUD or "Skylark" are as
truly poetic as Tennyson's "Rizpah"-
the most passionate of all short poems.
1t is chiefly in his sonnets that Mr..
Stockard shows his genius in word cul-
| ling The one to Homer is well worthy
| of the theme. The soul of true artist
is merged in his idea; he loses, as it were,
his identity in the thing that he would
| express. A painter once told Emerson
| that one could not draw a tree without
| in some sort becoming a tree. So to
write adequately of a great genius one
must for the time have wrapped him
self in the great mans soul. He must be
so stepped in the fire of his genius as to
| catch and reflect in his own writing its
spirit. And the sonnet to Homer has
| caught in some measure the note in
which the immortal bard sung. So, too,
in the sonnet 'At Fordham," we feel
that the author, like Poe, has heard
with hushed breath the thin far strain
OF Israel steal through his haunted
ROOM"
"Our Race" perhaps the finest Of all
these sonnets, is a fitting tribute to the
sturdy Saxon heroism through which
ever,
with lifted eyes and brave, unwavering
pace,
"And hope amid the lonely sands that
sings,
eve onward move despite the Khamsin's
stings."
Gan Evening Song and "At Night
falr' are lyric gems, and "The Review of
the Dead" which, by the way, has been
placed in a volume of selections from
American authors, is touched with n
wierd sublimity. "Knee-deep' is nnaf-
fectedly beautiful, as touching in it's
simple pathos as Hoods 81 Remember
Throughout all these poems we may dis
! Germ the promise of still higher flights,
and what he has already written entities
! him to be placed high in the rank of
| wrists; and it may not be too much to
say that as a sonneteer he has no equal
| among cOnfpmnorarv writer's