Menu
Search by Name
Search by Name
PAUL STANWOOD Obituary
To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.
Memories and Condolences
for PAUL STANWOOD
1 Entry
Nicholas Rice
November 28, 2024
The assignment, in October 1971, was to write some verse in the Miltonic style. I slipped into the Sedgwick Library and wrote the following:
ON HIS BALDNESS
When I consider how my hair is spent,
In this, a time of over-lengthy locks,
And see all those whose long hirsuteness mocks
A shining scalp, a surface seldom meant
To weather any sort of element
Without what eases elemental shocks,
Then do I say, What though the dullard gawks,
When, hairless, do I feel a wind Heav´n-sent,
As he who, hairy, never can nor will?
My mind is thus an hair´s-breadth of an inch
More near to Him, whence all my thought derives
And whither all my musings go; and till
At last I sigh and suffer at death´s pinch,
A shining on and in my skull still lives.
I typed the sonnet, then delivered it to Professor Stanwood at his office-door. He stood and read, all the while casting furtive glances at my hairline which was indeed receding. Over the course of fourteen lines, his smile grew and grew. This remains one of the sweetest memories of my undergraduate career.
After my time at UBC, I never spoke with him again, though I did once catch a glimpse of him in Mr. Roberts´ ice-cream parlour at the corner of Balsam and Forty-First. I regret I was too shy to say hello.
He brought such a love of literature to the classroom. This, I think, was his great strength - the intense quiet love he felt, which inspired his students.
Sad occasion dear - may his memory be a blessing.
Nicholas Rice
Toronto
Showing 1 - 1 of 1 results