Sara Teasdale Books

I first bought this book many years ago. Her poetry is haunting and filled with images of the sea and nature. I especially loved
"The Flight" about two eagles who when one died, the other followed. Such a beautiful poet to die so young. "Appraisal" was also another of my favorites in this book. I wonder why I have heard of Plath and e.e cummings but had never heard of Teasdale.

In the early twentieth-century, Sara Teasdale was something of an oddity: A poet who wrote like a Victorian, but who hadn't been eclipsed by free verse. In her sixth volume, Teasdale had smoothed out some of the flaws from her verse, but the tone is still romantic, wistful and ethereal.

The main theme of Teasdale's poetry is: love. The majority of her life's work centered on romance, even if it was restricted only to one adoring line per poem. She name-drops Deirdre, Helen, and especially Iseult as "those that love the most," and focuses on unnamed lovers whom she worships completely.

All is not the same, though -- the passion and intensity of her earlier poems have waned in favor of a quieter romantic sense, since Teasdale was increasingly disappointed in love. Quite a few of the poems are more introspective, musing on what would happen if she gave up poetry, or contemplations of nature and its beauty.

One poem near the end of the book is poignantly ironic, where Teasdale announces that "I shall live to be old, who feared I should die young." Since she committed suicide only seven years later, the final line ("... to envy sometimes the way of the early dead") seems sadder and more prophetic, as does her ponderings on a statue of a deceased nun. Not to mention that most legendary lovers she mentions met an untimely end.

At the same time, Teasdale's poetry has become less like a lovestruck teenager's, and more like a mature, sorrowful woman. There's an autumnal quality to "Dark of the Moon," with its references to falling leaves, empty beaches and "the great rain of moonlight pouring down." She also relied less on rhyme and meter, and focused more on words.

The idealistic romance and lyrical beauty that Teasdale did are alive in "Dark of the Moon," though the passion had definitely waned. Still, the autumnal beauty of her poetry is all the more striking.

The tragic Sara Teasdale was one of the foremost female poets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with her formal style and focus on romance. "Rivers To the Sea" is a solid collection of her work, and has many of her best-known love poems in it.

Although the early twentieth century saw the blossoming of the "new" poetry, Teasdale stuck to more formal prose: "The fountain shivers lightly in the rain/the laurels drip, the fading roses fall/the marble satyr plays a mournful strain/That leaves the rainy fragrance musical." Not terribly original in HOW it's written, but the rich language is all the more striking.

While Teasdale experimented late in her life, "Rivers to the Sea" mostly sticks to formal styles. Sometimes she did dense, intense, longer poems that seemed to have been written a long time ago. "Ah, Love there is no fleeing from thy might,/No lonely place where thou hast never trod,/No desert thou hast left uncarpeted/With flowers that spring beneath thy perfect feet."

But some of her poems are more like songs: "I am not yours, not lost in you,/Not lost, altho' I long to be/Lost as a candle lit at noon,/Lost as a snow-flake in the sea." In general, these ballads are much prettier and more accessable than the more intense and unstructured poems.

It's a sad irony that Teasdale wrote mostly romantic poetry -- very, VERY romantic poetry -- yet she never had a successful romance in her short life. Maybe that is why so many of her poems have a touch of fantasy about them -- it's the sort of love that reality might not be able to stand up to.

But she was obviously in love with love: "But oh, to him I loved/Who loved me not at all/I owe the little open gate/That led thru heaven's wall." Imagine having that written to you, or at least given to illustrate the feelings. Almost every poem in the eight books deals with romance, lovers, and how much she adored both.

In fact, after awhile it gets a little tedious; it would get dull if she didn't occasionally write about other things ("Oh when God made Italy he was gay and young!"). However, Teasdale's love poetry is extremely beautiful and richly written, so that it's hard not to get dewy-eyed when reading them individually.

Beautiful words and Italy are what "Rivers to the Sea" is made of. And Sara Teasdale's melancholy love poetry is definitely a must-read, for lovers of poetry, or just plain lovers.

A highly popular American poet during at turn of the twentieth century, Teasdale is sadly becoming less and less read as time goes on. Regardless of her popularity, however, her poetry is among the most poignant in all English literature for me. Her sensuous yet traditional work is not difficult to understand, but is most striking and moving.

"Barter" from her 1917 Love Songs was the poem that inspired me to discover poetry many years ago, "Live has loveliness to sell,/All beautiful and splendid things,/Blue waves whitened on a cliff,/Soaring fire that sways and sings,/Children's faces looking up,/Holding wonder like a cup.<2 more stanzas>..."

Her major themes are love, death, and the beauty of nature. This Collected Poems includes selections from all her major works, but sadly fails to include many works, without explanation whatsoever. I find this extremely disturbing, along with the lack of foreword or editorial note. This is the only reason this collection receives a 4/5 instead of 5/5. Luckily for us, most of her work is available on public domain.

I feel that Teasdale is especially excellent for starting into poetry and is always a pleasure to read. Her work is not the most profound thing in the world, but that leads to relative ease of understanding and a beauty that can be enjoyed by all. I highly, highly recommend Teasdale to anyone getting started with poetry or just for a very enjoyable read. If you want to sample before you buy, much of her work is in public domain, and can be seen at that above link.

Teasdale is truly a great pleasure to read. Even if you don't buy the book, I highly urge you to read her work! It is incredibly beautiful.

The tragic Sara Teasdale was one of the foremost female poets of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with her formal style and focus on romance. "The Collected Poems of Sara Teasdale" brings together all eight of her books, although the sole focus of her poetry gets a bit tiring after awhile.

Although the early twentieth century saw the blossoming of the "new" poetry, Teasdale stuck to more formal prose: "The fountain shivers lightly in the rain/the laurels drip, the fading roses fall/the marble satyr plays a mournful strain/That leaves the rainy fragrance musical." Not terribly original in HOW it's written, but the rich language is all the more striking.

Over time her style became a bit more experimental ("while your kisses and the flowers/falling, falling/tangled my hair"), but she usually stuck to the same rhyme schemes and simple language. And the final poem of the collection seems sad when one considers that she committed suicide: "I will make this world of my devising/out of a dream in my lonely mind/I shall find the crystal of peace,-- above me/stars I shall find."

Teasdale never actually had a successful romance in her life, but she was obviously in love with love. "When I am not with you/I am alone/for there is no one else/and there is nothing/that comforts me but you," she writes late in the volume. Imagine having that written to you, or at least given to illustrate the feelings.

Almost every poem in the eight books deals with romance, lovers, and how much she adored both. In fact, after awhile it gets a little tedious; it's a good idea to read it slowly, in chunks. However, Teasdale's love poetry is extremely beautiful and richly written, so that it's hard not to get dewy-eyed when reading them individually.

"The Collected Poems of Sara Teasdale" is a rich read, beautifully written and full of flowers, stars, dark rooms and unnamed lovers. A beautifully romantic read, though too intense to be read in one setting.

A lovely collection of poems, all of which are easy to read and enjoy. Think of this volume as good way to begin to appreciate poetry. Most of the poems relate to the natural world. If you like Edna St. Vincent Millay, then you will like Sara Teasdale.

I own a copy of this book from around 1943. I love her poetry and think it is a beautiful example of American Poetry. I hope others agree!!!!

Teasdale's poems are lovely and this is a wonderful collection. However, it is not as complete as the title implies. There are several poems missing from the original manuscript of "Rivers To The Sea" and no foreword that explains their absence. I can only imagine that there have been similar omissions from the other manuscripts included in the collection.

Sara Teasdale's poetry is full of passion and emotion, and it speaks to the reader even today, so long after it was first published. It is sad that the very same passion undoubtedly led to her suicide in early 1933. She wrote mainly of love, nature, and death, but of course "Love Songs" which was published in 1917 focused on love, though the other major themes are sometimes also there. It was her third major work (4th overall as "Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems" from 1907 is difficult to find, unfortunately, and was not a major publication).

"Love Songs" is an unusual collection, as many of the poems are from "Helen of Troy and other Poems" and "Rivers to the Sea". Section one is mostly republished poems from these earlier works (although some of the poems have slight changes), and section three is half republished works and half new works. Sections two and four of the book are entirely new poems. This doesn't subtract from the overall impact of the work though, and this is certainly a collection worth seeking out for those who love early 20th century poetry.

This work was recognized in 1918 by the Columbia University Poetry Society (an award which was to become the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry just two years later) which was sponsored by The Poetry Society of America. Love played a major role in several of the Pulitzer works that year, as it is a significant factor in Ernest Poole's "His Family" which won the first Pulitzer for Novel (later changed to Fiction), and Jesse Lynch Williams' comedy "Why Marry?" (a.k.a. "And So They Got Married") which won the first Pulitzer for Drama. Pulitzer had not made a provision for awarding works of Poetry, so the first couple of awards were given by grants from the Poetry Society of America.

Though probably not her best work, "Love Songs" is still well worth seeking out. From the introduction, which is in and of itself a poem, to "A November Night", it is full of passion, whether it be the passion of new love, on-going love, or the loss of love, Sara Teasdale paints incredible pictures with her words. It would not be a proper review without a couple of examples:

The Look (first published in "Rivers to the Sea")

Strephon kissed me in the spring,
Robin in the fall,
But Colin only looked at me
And never kissed at all.

Strephon's kiss was lost in jest,
Robin's lost in play,
But the kiss in Colin's eyes
Haunts me night and day.

To-night (first published in "Love Songs")

The moon is a curving flower of gold,
The sky is still and blue;
The moon was made for the sky to hold,
And I for you.

The moon is a flower without a stem,
The sky is luminous;
Eternity was made for them,
To-night for us.

I highly recommend "Love Songs", though I give this book only four-stars because her later works are even better.

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"But all remembered beauty is no more/Than a vague prelude to the thought of you," Sara Teasdale wrote at the beginning of "Love Songs." Since she wrote mostly love poetry over her lifetime, it's unsurprising that Teasdale devoted an entire book to her best work.

Aside from some new poems ("You smile at me/As though I were a little dreamy child/Behind whose eyes the fairies live..."), Teasdale included previous poems from "Rivers to the Sea" and "Helen of Troy and Other Poems." As a result, the poems vary wildly throughout the book. There is, however, one thing that all the poems have in common: Love.

Love as romance. Love as idealism. Love as passion. Love lost. Love spurned. Love in decline. Love gained. Love being enjoyed. Love as a memory. Love as a wild thrill, a comforting embrace, an all-consuming joy. It's a sad irony that Teasdale herself never had a really successful love affair; most of what she wrote was idealized romance.

In an era when poetry was being radically revamped, Teasdale generally stuck to Victorian poetry structures: simple rhyme schemes, rich phrasing, and a lot of nature descriptions, although in poems like "Summer Night, Riverside," she tried freestyle forms. Surprisingly, her style doesn't seem cloying except in odd spots.

There is one flaw: at times, Teasdale's lushly romantic sensibilities get overwhelming. It's a bit like reading the diary of a lovelorn Victorian teenager. However, taken in small doses, "Love Songs" reveals that Teasdale had a rare talent. "In the wild, soft summer darkness/How many and many a night we two together/Sat in the park and watched the Hudson/Wearing her lights like golden spangles/Glinting on black satin."

Lovers, romantics and fans of lush poetry will enjoy "Love Songs," which brings together many of the best of Teasdale's (many) love poems. Pretty, charming and well-written.

I loved "those who love", it reached into your soul and makes you remember why you fell in love, alot of the poems in the books I've read in high school, but didn't know who wrote them, and now 20 years later, I found them in this book and I still remember them, they stay in your heart and you won't be the same after reading them