John Rudolph Sutermeister

John Rudolph Sutermeister (March 16, 1803 – January 16, 1826)[1] was an American jurist and poet.

John Rudolph Sutermeister
Born(1803-03-16)March 16, 1803
Curaçao
DiedJanuary 16, 1826(1826-01-16) (aged 22)
New York City, U.S.
OccupationLawyer, poet
NationalityAmerican

Life

Sutermeister was baptized at a Lutheran church in Curaçao, his birthplace, 17 April 1803.[1] Upon arrival in Rhinebeck around 1812 he studied at the Lutheran church. In 1817 he was sent to boarding school in Cooperstown, New York. After studying alternately at the Rhinebeck Hartwick Academy, he studied law at Rhinebeck. In 1824 he began a tour through the western part of the state of New York to find a suitable location to establish itself as a lawyer. He settled in the same year in Syracuse, New York. However, the legal profession did not suit him and he then worked briefly as editor of the Syracuse Gazette. In July 1825 he left Syracuse to move to New York City where his friends had found a suitable and lucrative position for him. However, this was short-lived because six months later he died.[1]

John made himself a poet deserving in his short life.[2]

Work

In 1824 Sutermeister wrote an Ode to Linnæus,[3] which was also published in the American Farmer[4]

The same year, he wrote the poem To a Humming Bird,[5] which was published in John Keese's The Poets of America[6] as well as in Anthony Benezet Cleveland's Studies in Poetry and Prose[7]

A year later, he wrote The Garden; his poems were published as Minor Poems (including A Contrasted Picture,[8] The Lament (or A Lament),[9] Faded Hours[10] (The Careless Lover's Adieu) and in the Syracuse Gazette.

Poems (selection)
Published also in: American Farmer, no. 21, vol. 6, Baltimore, 13 August 1824, p. 161 (online)
  • To a Humming Bird. (originally appeared in 1824) (Excerpt)
Published in: John Keese: The Poets of America, volume 1, S. Colman, 1840, p. 124-125.
And in: A. B. Cleveland: Studies in Poetry and Prose: Consisting of Selections Principally from American Writers, and Designed for the Highest Class in Schools. W. and J. Neal, 1832, p. 360.

References
  1. "Caribische Genealogie - Familiegeschiedenissen van overzee". Retrieved 2015-08-08.
  2. Samuel Kettell. Specimens of American Poetry, with Biographical and Critical Notices, vol. III, pp. 72-75, New York. 1967.
  3. Celebration at Flushing, of the Birth-Day of Linnaeus. New-York Branch of the Linnaean Society of Paris, 1824, p. 14 description at the Digital Public Library of America
  4. no. 21, vol. 6, Baltimore, 13 August 1824, p. 161
  5. Excerpt
  6. volume 1, S. Colman, 1840, p. 124-125
  7. Selections Principally from American Writers, and Designed for the Highest Class in Schools. W. and J. Neal, 1832, p. 360.
  8. John Rudolph Sutermeister at the Internet Archive, p. 72-73.
  9. Digitalized by Gutenberg.org, including biographical background, p. 73-74.
  10. John Rudolph Sutermeister at the Internet Archive, p. 74-75. (Rufus Wilmot Griswold: The Poets and Poetry of America: To the Middle of the Nineteenth Century. A. Hart, 1852, p. 545.
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