Edward Rowland Sill American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and educator, was born in Windsor, Connecticut

Windsor, Connecticut

Windsor is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, and was the first English settlement in the state. It lies on the northern border of Connecticut's capital, Hartford. The population was estimated at 28,778 in 2005....

.

He graduated from Yale

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1861, where he was Class Poet and a member of Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones

Skull and Bones is an undergraduate senior or secret society at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. It is a traditional peer society to Scroll and Key and Wolf's Head, as the three senior class 'landed societies' at Yale....

. He engaged in business in California, and entered the Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School

Harvard Divinity School is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the United States. The School's mission is to train and educate its students either in the academic study of religion, or for the practice of a religious ministry or other public...

 in 1867 but soon left it for a position on the staff of the New York Evening Mail

New York Evening Mail

The New York Evening Mail was an American daily newspaper published in New York City.The paper was made up of the New York Evening Express, which dated from 1836, and the Daily Advertiser. It was eventually merged with the Evening Telegram, which became the New York World-Telegram in 1927.From New...

. After teaching at Wadsworth

Wadsworth, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 18,437 people, 7,276 households, and 5,144 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,940.5 people per square mile . There were 7,613 housing units at an average density of 801.3/sq mi...

 and Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 49,374 people, 21,655 households, and 13,317 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,932.9 people per square mile . There were 22,727 housing units at an average density of 889.7 per square mile...

 (1868-1871), he became principal of the Oakland High School, California.

He was professor of English literature at the University of California

University of California

The University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...

 during the period 1874–1882. His health was failing, and he returned to Cuyahoga Falls in 1883. He devoted himself to literary work, abundant and largely anonymous, until his death in Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland, Ohio

Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...

.

Much of his poetry was contributed to The Atlantic Monthly

The Atlantic Monthly

The Atlantic is an American magazine founded in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1857. It was created as a literary and cultural commentary magazine. It quickly achieved a national reputation, which it held for more than a century. It was important for recognizing and publishing new writers and poets,...

, the Century Magazine, and the Overland Monthly. Many of his graceful prose essays appeared in The Contributors Club, and others appeared in the main body of the Atlantic. Among his works are:

• A translation of Rau's Mozart (1868)
• The Hermitage and Other Poems (1868)
• The Venus of Milo and Other Poems (1883), a farewell tribute to his California friends
• Poems (1887)
• The Hermitage and Later Poems (1889)
• Hermione and Other Poems (1900)
• The Prose of Edward Rowland Sill (1900)
• Poems (1902)

He was a modest and charming man, a graceful essayist, a sure critic. His contribution to American poetry is small but of fine quality. His best poems, such as "The Venus of Milo," "The Fool's Prayer" and "Opportunity," gave him a high place among the minor poets of America, which might have been higher but for his early death.

See A Memorial volume privately printed by his friends in 1887; and Biographical sketch in The Poetical Works of Edward Rowland Sill (Boston, 1906), edited by William Belmont Parker with Mrs Sill's assistance.
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External links

• Selected Poems and Songs by Edward Rowland Sill with MIDI sequences for "The Lover's Song"