Lavinia Stoddard


Lavinia Stoddard was an American poet and school founder from Connecticut. She spent her early years in New Jersey, where she received her education. After marrying physician William Stoddard, she co-founded and ran an academy in Troy, New York, which became known for its educational work in the community. Stoddard wrote numerous poems that were published anonymously in periodicals, including "The Soul’s Defiance", which reflected her personal experiences and was widely reprinted in nineteenth-century American anthologies. She spent her final years in Alabama due to ill health and died there in 1820.

Early life and education

Lavinia Stone was born in Guilford, Connecticut, June 29, 1787. Her father was Elijah Stone. While she was an infant, the family removed to Paterson, New Jersey.
In Paterson, she received the kind of education in the schools as was at the time common to the children of farmers.

Career

In 1811, she married Dr. William Stoddard, of Stratford, Connecticut. He was a graduate of Yale University in 1804; a graduate of the Medical School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1810, and a member of the Rensselaer County Medical Society in 1817.
In the then flourishing village of Troy, New York, on the Hudson River, the husband and wife established an academy, which they conducted for several years. Here, they were friends of Francis Wayland, D.D., LL.D., afterwards of Brown University, and were both noticed in his memoir in a complimentary way.
Stoddard wrote many poems, which were printed anonymously in the public journals. Her brother stated that the poem entitled "The Soul's Defiance" was interesting to her immediate friends for the truthfulness with which it portrayed her own experience. This was written in a period of suffering and with a sense of injury. It was the last of her compositions, and perhaps the best. It was included in most of the anthologies published in the United States in the 19th century.

Personal life

Stoddard became ill with consumption, and about the year 1818, she removed with her family to Blakeley, Alabama, where Dr. Stoddard soon after died. Partially recovering her own health, she revisited Troy, but the severity of the climate induced her to return to Blakeley, where she died within a year of her husband. She died November 8, 1820, and was buried at the Blakeley Cemetery.

"The Soul's Defiance"


I SAID to Sorrow’s awful storm,
Rage on—thou may’st destroy this form,
But still the spirit that now brooks
Undaunted on its fury looks
I said to Penury’s meagre train,
My last poor life-drop you may drain,
Yet still the spirit that endures
And meet each cold, cold grasp of yours
I said to cold Neglect and Scorn,
Ye may pursue me till my form
Yet still the spirit, which you see
Draws from its own nobility
I said to Friendship’s menaced blow,
Thou canst but add one bitter woe
Yet still the spirit that sustains
Shall smile upon its keenest pains,
I said to Death’s uplifted dart,
Thou wilt not find a fearful heart—
For still the spirit, firm and free,
Wrapt in its own eternity,

Attribution

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