Nationality U.S.A. Role Poet Occupation Poet Died 1932 | Children Elizabeth Parlon Education Hamilton College Name Clinton Scollard | |
 | ||
Born September 18, 1860 ( 1860-09-18 ) Fayettefille, New York Alma mater Hamilton College (1861) Notable work "As I Came Down from Lebanon" Books The singing heart, Songs of Sunrise Lands, Sprays of shamrock, A Southern Flight, Old and New World Lyrics - by Similar People Jessie Belle Rittenhouse, Oley Speaks, Frank Dempster Sherman, Wallace Rice | ||
A poetry recital: Swimming by Clinton Scollard
Bag Pipes at Sea Read by MV LibriVox Weekly Poetry Clinton Scollard
Clinton Scollard (1860–1932) was an American poet and writer of fiction. He was a Professor of English at Hamilton College, and collaborator and husband of Jessie Belle Rittenhouse.
Contents
- A poetry recital Swimming by Clinton Scollard
- Bag Pipes at Sea Read by MV LibriVox Weekly Poetry Clinton Scollard
- Professional career
- Associates
- Family
- Assessment
- Principal Works of Verse
- References
Professional career
Scollard was born at Clinton, New York on September 28, 1860, son of James Isaac and Mary Elizabeth (Stevens) Scollard. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1881, and later attended Harvard University, where his friends included poets Bliss Carman and Frank Dempster Sherman. At Hamilton, where he was a member of the Chi Psi fraternity, he played varsity baseball and is credited with introducing the curveball to college baseball.
After a period in Cambridge, Massachusetts, he spent a year at University of Cambridge in England. In 1888 he became an Associate Professor of English at Hamilton College, where he remained until 1896. Except for a further year in the English Department at Hamilton College in 1911, he devoted the rest of his life to creative writing. Hamilton granted him an honorary L.H.D. in 1906.
Associates
Corresponded with Martha Foote Crowe. Oley Speaks composed the song "Sylvia" to lyrics by Scollard.
Family
On July 3, 1890 Scollard married Georgia Brown of Jackson, Michigan; they had one daughter Elizabeth Scollard Parlon, but they divorced in early 1924. On 20 March 1924 Scollard married fellow poet Jessie Belle Rittenhouse. They had no children and he died in 1932.
Assessment
Scollard has been characterized as a minor poet but a fine technician:
He knew himself to be a fine craftsman, able to fashion delicate lyrics that forbear contemplative weight for perfection in form. His verse delights in the natural world, in small incidents that are honed to perfection. It is easy to view him as a Frost without the philosophy.