Sully Prudhomme studied science at school but was forced by an eye illness to renounce a scientific career. His first job was as a clerk in a factory office, which he left in 1860 to study law. In 1865 he began to publish fluent and melancholic verse inspired by an unhappy love affair. Stances et poemes (1865) contains his best known poem, Le vase brisé (“The Broken Vase”). Les Épreuves (1866; “Trials”), and Les Solitudes (1869; “Solitude”) are also written in this first, sentimental style.

Sully Prudhomme later renounced personal lyricism for the more objective approach of the Parnassians, writing poems attempting to represent philosophical concepts in verse. Two of the best known works in this vein are La Justice (1878; “Justice”) and Le Bonheur (1888; “Happiness”), the latter an exploration of the Faustian search for love and knowledge. Sully Prudhomme's later work is sometimes obscure and shows a naive approach to the problem of expressing philosophical themes in verse. He was elected to the French Academy in 1881.