John Rudolph Sutermeister


John Rudolph Sutermeister was an American jurist and poet.

Life

Sutermeister was baptized at a Lutheran church in Curaçao, his birthplace on 17 April 1803. 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 himself 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.
John made himself a poet deserving in his short life.

Work

In 1824 Sutermeister wrote an Ode to Linnæus,
which was also published in the American Farmer
The same year, he wrote the poem To a Humming Bird, which was published in John Keese's as well as in Anthony Benezet Cleveland's Studies in Poetry and Prose
A year later, he wrote The Garden; his poems were published as Minor Poems, Faded Hours and in the Syracuse Gazette.

Poems (selection)

Ode to Linnæus. To a Humming Bird. The Garden. Minor Poems.A Contrasted Picture. The Lament or A Lament. Faded Hours.
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