The Poetry Of Sara Teasdale: "No one worth possessing can be quite possessed."

By Sara Teasdale

In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage. In this volume we look at the works of Sara Teasdale. Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on August 8, 1884 in St Louis, Missouri. A woman of poor health it was only at 14 that she was well enough to begin school. Her education finished in 1903 at Hosmer Hall and her first poetry publication was in 1907 with her second book in 1911. Sara’s third poetry collection, Rivers to the Sea, was published in 1915 and was a best seller, being reprinted many times. A year later, in 1916 she moved to New York City and in 1917 released Love Songs. It won three awards: the Columbia University Poetry Society prize, the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America. By 1929 Sara was deeply unhappy and filed for divorce. Sara remained in New York City and resumed her friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was by this time married with children. 1931 Vachel Lindsay committed suicide. Two year later Sara to was dead - overdosing on sleeping pills. She is buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis. Many of those poems are published in our audiobook version available at iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Copyright Group
• Release date: Sep 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9781780005614

Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale (1884-1933) was an American poet. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Teasdale suffered from poor health as a child before entering school at the age of ten. In 1904, after graduating from Hosmer Hall, Teasdale joined the group of female artists known as The Potters, who published The Potter’s Wheel, a monthly literary and visual arts magazine, from 1904 to 1907. With her first two collections—Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems (1907) and Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911)—Teasdale earned a reputation as a gifted lyric poet from critics and readers alike. In 1916, following the publication of her bestselling Rivers to the Sea (1915), she moved to New York City with her husband Ernst Filsinger. There, she won the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Love Songs (1917), her fourth collection. Frustrated with Filsinger’s prolonged absences while traveling for work, she divorced him in 1929 and moved to another apartment in the Upper West Side. Renewing her friendship with poet Vachel Lindsay, she continued to write and publish poems until her death by suicide in 1933.

Book preview

The Poetry Of Sara Teasdale

Poetry is a fascinating use of language.  With almost a million words at its command it is not surprising that these Isles have produced some of the most beautiful, moving and descriptive verse through the centuries.  In this series we look at individual poets who have shaped and influenced their craft and cement their place in our heritage.  In this volume we look at the works of the American poet Sara Teasdale.

Sara Trevor Teasdale was born on August 8, 1884 in St Louis, Missouri.  A woman of poor health it was only at 14 that she was well enough to begin school.  Her education finished in 1903 at Hosmer Hall and her first poetry publication was in 1907 with her second book in 1911.

She was courted by various men among them Vachel Lindsay, a great poet but one who thought he could not provide a suitable standard of living for Sara so she married Ernst Filsinger in 1914.  Sara’s third poetry collection, Rivers to the Sea, was published in 1915 and was a best seller, being reprinted many times. A year later, in 1916 the married couple moved to New York City.

In 1917 she released the poetry collection Love Songs and the following year it won three awards: the Columbia University Poetry Society prize, the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America.

By 1929 Sara was deeply unhappy and lonely so she moved interstate for three months, in order to gain a divorce.  She did not wish to inform Filsinger, and only at the insistence of her lawyers as the divorce was going through did she -Filsinger was shocked and surprised.

After her divorce Sara remained in New York City and resumed her friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was by this time married with children.

1931 Vachel Lindsay committed suicide. Two year later Sara to was dead - overdosing on sleeping pills. She is buried in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.

Many samples are at our youtube channel   http://www.youtube.com/user/PortablePoetry?feature=mhee   Many of these poems are in an audiobook by our sister company and can be purchased from iTunes, Amazon and other digital stores.  Among the readers are Richard Mitchley and Ghizela Rowe

Index Of Poems

A November Night

September Midnights

February Twilight

For The Anniversary Of John Keats Death

February

April - Like Barley Bending

May

Christmas Carol

August Moonrise

June Night

Spring Night

The Flight

New Love And Old

The Look

Spring

The Lighted Window

The Kiss

Immortal

After Death

Swans

The Old Maid

From The Woolworth Tower

Leaves

To The Years

Peace

April

Come

Moods

April Song

May Day

Crowned

To A Castilian Song

A Winter Bluejay

In A Restaurant

Joy

In A Railroad Station

In The Train

To One Away

Sea Longing

Song

Deep In The Night

I Shall Not Care

Desert Pools

Longing

Pity

After Parting

Enough

Alchemy

February

Morning

May Night

Dusk In June

Love Free

Summer Night, Riverside

In A Subway Station

Broadway

After Love

Dooryard Roses

A Prayer

Indian Summer

Sappho

The Sea Wind

The Cloud

The Poor House

New Year's Dawn - Broadway

The Star

Doctors

The Inn Of Earth

In The Carpenter's Shop

The Carpenter's Son

The Mother Of A Poet

Rivers To The Sea

In Memoriam F. O. S.

Twilight

Swallow Flight

Thoughts

To Dick, On His Sixth Birthday

To Rose

The Fountain

The Rose

Dreams

Vignettes Overseas

A November Night

There! See the line of lights,

A chain of stars down either side the street

Why can't you lift the chain and give it to me,

A necklace for my throat? I'd twist it round

And you could play with it. You smile at me

As though I were a little dreamy child

Behind whose eyes the fairies live. . . . And see,

The people on the street look up at us

All envious. We are a king and queen,

Our royal carriage is a motor bus,

We watch our subjects with a haughty joy. . . .

How still you are! Have you been hard at work

And are you tired to-night?