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Isabel Gregoire
Mrs. Kristen Kirschner
English 2 Block 3
23 March 2015
Poetry Research: Sara Teasdale
Sara, or Sarah, Trevor Teasdale was a strong female poet in the 17th and 18th century. When
she was born her name was Sarah but she dropped the h when she began publishing her poetry.
Although she was constantly struggling with her life and relationships as a woman, she was a
strong, confident poet who became successful by turning the pain and suffering from her life into
poetic works of art. Her poetry reflected her ideas on women and the world around her.
Sara Teasdale was born on August 8th, 1884 to well-educated, middle aged parents named
John Warren Teasdale and Mary Elizabeth Willard Teasdale. Teasdale was born into a prominent
family because her father was a well known businessman. Teasdales family was Puritan but she
chose another path. She created an altar in her bedroom for the Greek God Aphrodite. She also
recited prayers to Aphrodite and said that Aphrodite was more real to her than the virgin
(Oakes). Because her family was prominent, she was educated by tutors until the age of nine.
After that she went to private schools to finish out education. During her school years, she was
an avid reader and began writing poetry in school.
There were many relationships in Sara Teasdales life that affected her. She had many friends
who were also fellow poets such as John Myers OHara, John Wheelock, Orrick Johns, Amy
Lowell, Joyce Kilmer, and Vachel Lindsay. These poets often communicated to share and
compare their poetry. Sara also had friends who were not poets such as Grace and WIllamina
Parish, Caroline Risque, Vine Colby, Marion Cummings, Marguerite Wilkinson, and Margaret

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Conklin. Teasdales marriage situation was odd. She was good friends with a fellow poet named
Vachel Lindsay. Lindsay had romantic feelings for Teasdale and even wrote one of his poems
The Chinese Nightingale specifically about her and their relationship. When Lindsay proposed,
Teasdale turned it down because she was used to living a lavish lifestyle and he was often very
poor. Later, on she met Ernst Filsinger and they got married on December 14th, 1914. Teasdale
and Filsinger then moved to New York where she met many of the friends and poets mentioned
previously.
Sara Teasdales poetry was heavily influenced by the 19th century Greek and English lyrics.
She was also influenced by ideas of death, love, and feminism. Teasdales style was classical,
straight forwards, and pure. Her favorite type of poem to write was a sonnet and that is what
most of her poems happened to be. Her poems were relating to ideas death and love. In
Teasdales poetry she considered death as a means of escape (Lipscomb). Her poems often
revolved around a single metaphor or simile. For example, the poem The Wave suggests that
love is like a broken wave (H. S. Yoon). When connecting death and love, Teasdale says only
by vanquishing the heart there is rest (Teasdale in Academy of American Poets -- Biography of
American Poets). Teasdale also deals with the issues of feminism in her poetry. Teasdale thought
that as a woman, she must choose between domestic duties to her husband and writing poetry.
She suffered greatly with this ideal after she got divorced and had an abortion. Her poetry also
reflected the idea that women should be autonomous when they fall in love and urged women to
avoid depending on a husband for emotional and financial stability. She believed women should
be independent and thoughtful. These ideas about feminism influenced Sylvia Plath, Edna St.
Vincent Millay, and Elinor Wylie. She also expresses her longing for love and beauty throughout
her poetry while expressing her pain from being excluded from real life (Laurence).

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Sara Teasdale published her first volume of poetry in 1907 called Sonnets to Duse, and
Other Poems. She wrote this as a tribute to Eleonora Duse, whom Teasdale idolized. The poems
suggest a self-sufficient woman who is independent, like many of Teasdales poetry does. Her
second volume of poetry, Helen of Troy, and Other Poems, published in 1911 featured her poem
Helen of Troy. Teasdale was the most productive as a poet in the early years of her marriage
with Ernst Filsinger than any other time in her life. She wrote many poems and published many
volumes of poetry. She published her third volume of poetry, Rivers to the Sea, in 1915. In 1917,
she published Love Songs and The Answering Voice. Later on in her marriage and after her
marriage, she still wrote poetry but she published at a much slower rate. This was still top notch
poetry, though. In 1910, Teasdale became a member of the Poetry Society. Teasdale won many
poetry prizes including the Poetry Society of America Prize for Love in 1917 and the Columbia
University Poetry Society Prize in 1918.
Throughout Sara Teasdales life she attempted to write literature other than poetry. In 1911
she wrote a one act play called On The Tower which appeared in her book, Helen of Troy, and
Other Poems. Like many of her other works in Helen of Troy, and Other Poems, On The
Tower was written about the love life of a King and his Lady. Teasdale also edited two
anthologies. In 1917, she edited One Hundred Love Lyrics by Women and in 1922 she edited
Rainbow Gold: Poems Old and New Selected for Boys and Girls. Later on, Teasdale attempted
to write a biography of her favorite woman poet, Christina Rossetti, whom she idolized. She
never finished this biography because she died.
Paragraph 6 - Poetry Analysis

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Teasdales was influenced by other female poets and used her feminist beliefs to create
backgrounds for many of her poems. In the poem, Snowfall, Teasdale shows that there is a
man who believes that she cannot be unhappy because all he can know is his own (8).
a.
i.
ii.
iii.

Snowfall
A guy saying that the woman cant be unhappy
The man only knows himself
The woman is being hushed and smothered by the snow fall
b. Triolets
c. Doubt
Conclusion (+ Post-Marriage + Her Death)

Works Cited
Kort, Carol. "Teasdale, Sara." A to Z of American Women Writers, Revised Edition. Facts On File,
2007. American History Online. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.
<http://online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/165529?q=Sara Teasdale>.
Laurence, Patricia Ondek. "Sara Teasdale." Critical Survey Of Poetry, Second Revised Edition
(2002): 1-3. Literary Reference Center. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
Lipscomb, Elizabeth Johnston. "Sara Teasdale." MagillS Literary Annual 1980 (1980): 1-4.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.

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Oakes, Elizabeth H. "Teasdale, Sara." American Writers. Facts On File, 2004. American History
Online. Web. 7 Mar. 2016. <http://online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/197086?
q=Sara Teasdale>.
"Sara Teasdale." Academy Of American Poets -- Biographies Of American Poets (2008): 1.
Literary Reference Center. Web. 1 Mar. 2016.
"Teasdale, Sara." Encyclopedia of Feminist Literature, Second Edition. Facts On File, 2013.
American History Online. Web. 7 Mar. 2016.
<http://online.infobase.com/HRC/Search/Details/34048?q=Sara Teasdale>.
"Teasdale, Sara." Britannica Biographies (2012): 1. Biography Reference Center. Web. 4 Mar.
2016.
Teasdale, Sara. "Quote by Teasdale, Sara on Opportunity." Quotations Book 2010: General
OneFile. Web. 4 Mar. 2016.