SULLY PRUDHOMME, René-François-Armand PRUDHOMME, known as. — French poet, b. in Paris on 16 May 1839, d. at Châtenay on 7 Sept. 1907.
Towards the end of the 19th century he was one of the most fashionable poets in France. After scientific studies and various occupations, he turned to an exclusively literary career following the success of his first volume, *Stances et poèmes* (1865), typically Parnassian in style. From this kind of delicate and sensitive poetry, of which the most typical and famous composition is *Le vase brisé*, S. P. moved towards philosophical poetry, first with his translation of the first book of Lucretius (1866) and with *Les Épreuves* and *Les Solitudes* (1866 and 1872; the latter still bearing the Parnassian flavour); then with various lyrics, *Les destins*, *La France*, *Les vaines tendresses*, *La justice*, *Le bonheur*, all published between 1872 and 1888. For S. P., poetry had to be intimate and philosophical, and the external world was only interesting as a «sublime enigma». In his later poems, didactic and rhetorical, he ingeniously described the barometer, the Pythagorean table, positivist doctrine, and Stoic morality. He also published a study on Pascal and collected in his *Testament poétique* (1901) some critical essays, including a discussion with the Symbolists on the necessity of rhythmic verse. Member of the Académie française in 1881. Nobel Prize 1901.