Trumbull Stickney
Trumbull Stickney was an American poet and scholar born in 1874 in Geneva, Switzerland, to American expatriates from notable New England families. His upbringing was marked by a blend of European and American experiences, largely influenced by his parents' interests and travels. He attended Harvard University, where he formed friendships with fellow poets and engaged actively in literary pursuits. Stickney published his first poetry collection, "Dramatic Verses," in 1902, showcasing his talents alongside significant works such as "Be still. The Hanging Gardens Were a Dream."
He furthered his academic career at the University of Paris, becoming the first American to earn a Doctor of Letters from the Sorbonne in 1903. Tragically, his life was cut short by a brain tumor, diagnosed in 1904, which led to a rapid decline in his health. Despite his illness, Stickney continued to write, producing poignant and innovative poetry until his death on October 11, 1904. His work reflects a unique tension between his European heritage and American identity, leaving a lasting impact on early 20th-century literature.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Trumbull Stickney
Poet
- Born: June 20, 1874
- Birthplace: Geneva, Switzerland
- Died: October 11, 1904
- Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts
Biography
Trumbull Stickney began his life of thirty years in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1874. His American-born parents, Austin Stickney and Harriet Champion Trumbull, a Harvard classics professor and an heiress, were both descended from well-established New England families. Like characters created by Henry James, the parents were virtual expatriates, unwilling either to love or to forget their New England roots. Trumbull Stickney was the third of four children, and the first son. He was closest to his eldest sister, Lucy.
As a result of his mother’s passion for European travel and his father’s intermittent lecturing at Harvard, Trumbull Stickney spent his childhood in a bewildering alternation of European, American, and British locales. His haunting poem, “Mnemosyne” (1902), evokes his persistent early memories of New England. Stickney received most of his youthful education from his father, who focused upon Greek, Latin, and the violin. Stickney’s first full year spent in a classroom was in New York City, at Dr. Cutler’s School.
He entered Harvard University in 1891, where his classmates included other poets of note, including the widely admired William Vaughn Moody and the still-unrecognized Edwin Arlington Robinson. Their instructors included the poet George Santayana. Stickney, with his exotic background, did not fit into any of the poets’ clubs at Harvard, although he became friends with Moody. Stickney was an editor and contributor to The Harvard Monthly literary journal, and participated in amateur theatricals, reading parts in Latin, French, and German with equal ease. The universal comment on his appearance was “tall and handsome.”
Stickney graduated from Harvard in 1895. His closest friend, George Cabot Lodge, graduated from Harvard in the same year, and the two young men, accompanied by their immediate families, moved to Paris, France. Stickney and Lodge entered the University of Paris (the Sorbonne) in the fall of 1895. The American elder statesman, Henry Adams, also a family friend, was then living in Paris and joined the young scholars for lively discussions of history, philosophy, and politics.
Stickney’s years in Paris were extremely productive. In his literary career, he published his first volume of poetry, Dramatic Verses (1902), which included his justifiably most famous poem, “Be still. The Hanging Gardens Were a Dream” (1898), and he experimented with playwriting, including the verse drama, “Prometheus Pyrphoros” (1900). In the scholarly realm, he collaborated with Sylvain Lévy on a French translation of the Sanskrit Bhagavad- Gita, and he wrote two doctoral dissertations: one in Latin on the life of the fifteenth century humanist Ermolao Barbaro and one in French on the clash between rhetoric and poetic expressiveness in Greek verse. In 1903, Stickney became the first American ever to be made a doctor of letters of the Sorbonne. His thesis in French was also awarded a medal from the French Association for the Encouragement of Greek Studies.
Before returning to America, Stickney spent the summer of 1903 in Greece, and in the fall began to lecture at Harvard on Greek drama and The Republic of Plato. He enjoyed his “easy job,” while at the same time, the old tension between his European background and American reality goaded him to fruitful experiments in poetry. The publication of his Later Lyrics (1905) was arranged by his friends posthumously. The weight of Victorian convention, obsolete by the turn of the twentieth century, still hindered the natural expression of most writers of verse in English, including the American. Stickney was a poet whose reach often exceeded his grasp: yet when he succeeded, unafraid of sounding awkward, he broke through to memorable lines uniquely his own.
Tragedy struck in May 1904, as the cause of a nagging malaise was diagnosed: Stickney had a brain tumor. He went into a rapid decline, soon losing his sight and ability to walk. He continued to write to the end, producing verse that was increasingly disjointed and poignant. His last lines were characteristic of the startling imagery of which he was sometimes capable: “The green and climbing eyesight of a cat/Crawled near my mind’s poor birds.” Stickney died on October 11, 1904.