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DOCUMENT

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Sara Teasdale: Research

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Sara Teasdale: Research Paper

In the beginning of the 20th century, Modernism
thrived as an artistic movement that stemmed from
the changing world around it. Authors wrote during a
time when tradition was not as important anymore,
and people were beginning to change how they lived.
Sara Teasdale was one of the moving Modernists who
wrote inspiring pieces that contained elements of the
experimentation with gender roles, an introduction of
racial issues, inclusion of pop culture, wealth of
middle and upper classes, and showed the bleakness
of the rural life. Sara Teasdale was nothing short of an
amazing writer. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1884,
Teasdale was brought up in a household of strong
Eastern Puritan ancestry and in a city with many
German immigrants, creating a stressing importance
of art and music (Phillips). Embodying her Puritan
background, St. Louis roots, and enthusiasm for the
arts, Sara Teasdale blossomed into a recognizable
20th century Modern poet whose love for romance
and nature is depicted clearly throughout her works.
Teasdale's early childhood experiences are a
significant reason for her successes as a poet when
she became older. Sara Teasdale was the youngest of
four children, and her family worshiped Puritan
values, believing strongly that the New England
education was superior to other forms of education
(Laurence). Sara was homeschooled until the age of
nine because of her frail health (Phillips). She then
attended a private school that was only a block from
her home (Phillips). She attended the Mary Institute
and graduated from the girls' school, Hosman Hall,
when she was eighteen (Phillips; Laurence). There, the
social and intellectual influences of the school were

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distinct, lending to her continuous fascination with the

artistic side of life (Laurence).
After growing up to finding more of a familiar way to
look at the world, Sara married Ernst Filsinger, who
had a familiar background and similar qualities of
living a low-paced lifestyle (Laurence). They were
married on December 14, 1914, and lived happily for
their early years of marriage. Teasdale and Filsinger
lived in New York City, which influenced a numerous
amount of Sara's poems, like "Helen of Troy" and
"Rivers to the Sea" (Laurence). Eventually, after many
solemn years of unhappy marriage, Teasdale divorced
her husband in the late 1920's in Reno, while he was in
South America (Laurence). After their divorce, she
became antisocial, and her health rapidly declined
(Laurence). Teasdale faced a constant struggle with
depression, and committed suicide in New York in
1933, by overdosing on barbiturates (Laurence).
Teasdale's life consisted of several dramatic shifts:
going from happily married to divorced and alone,
which were reflected through other dramatic shifts in
her poetry.
These climatic transformations are extremely
prevalent in the poems: "The Gift," "The Lighted
Window," "Love Songs," and "Fear." Written in 1907,
"The Gift" encompasses Teasdale's early work in its
simplicity and clarity, use of classical forms, and
passionate and romantic subject matter. In the poem,
Sara is asking her Lord what all can she give to him to
repay him for all he has given her. The only gifts she
has are the ones he has given, and if he takes those,
then he would be living in a reflection of her. She
describes her God as her "lover." At the end of the
poem, she shifts into the mindset of feeling sorry that
she has strayed away from her path with God. The

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words of the poem are light and simple, like "Showed

me the light and the joy that cover/The wild sweet
earth and the restless sea?" (Teasdale 3-4), which
reflects her innocence at the time.
Similar simplistic techniques seen in "The Gift" are also
seen in "The Lighted Window." In this poem, there is
an importance of the mystery "he" that remains
throughout the poem. Sara uses vivid imagery to
convey that the man's boyhood was lost 1 in a desired
confusion of color. As the boy says goodbye to his
childhood, there is a dark undertone alluding to the
cold winter and the fact that he is watching his
boyhood slip away. Phrases like "in the winter dusk"
(Teasdale) and "Hurried, harassed" (Teasdale) create a
sense of place and pace for the poem, which is
important to the overall success of the dark and
troubled undertone. In this poem, Teasdale uses her
simplistic and methodical way of thinking of life as a
platform for the story being told 2. Even though the
story reveals a darker side to Teasdale, it continuously
shows her use of classical forms and clarity to portray
passionate scenes of life during the Modern world.
In "Love Songs" and "Fear," there is a strong shift in
the mindset of Teasdale. Her poems become more
about the loneliness of relationships than the
overflowing love of them and about the steepness of
darkness than the ever-glowing sun. Most
importantly, her passionate subject matter turned
creepy and morbid. The distinct difference in the
mindset of Teasdale during "Love Songs" and "Fear" is
extremely prevalent. Teasdale's "Love Songs," written
in 1917, opens in a town in Italy where she realizes that
even though the beauty is dark, it still shines. The first
stanza, "I have remembered beauty I the night/Against
black silences I waked to see/A shower of sunlight

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over Italy" (Teasdale 1-3), contains her previous

thoughts of beauty and love before the mysterious
"you." In the final stanza, "My thoughts seek you as
waves that seek the shore/ 3 And when I think of you, I
am at rest" (Teasdale 13-14), determines the fact that
her "love song" is, in fact, directed at her true loved
ones. Sara Teasdale won the Columbia University
Poetry Prize in 1918 for this poem, as it clearly shows
her passionate and romantic style by the use of subject
matter.
More powerful shift takes place in the poem, "Fear."
From the beginning, Sara expresses her fear of
something in the dark. Teasdale uses personification
in the second line of the poem to express this crisp
hatred for "the cold black fear." She shows this
through her illusions to her childhood and how every
child is always afraid of the dark. She ponders if the
dark will kill her and if so, will someone save her? Not
only does this represent her fear of the dark, but also
her fear of solitude. She doesn't 4 understand how
anyone could just leave her to die, knowing she is
surrounded by her greatest fear. There is a definite
change in perspective about love, beauty, and death,
as this is a poem written later in her life. Since
Teasdale divorced in 1929 and became extremely
depressed, this poem seems to be a prelude to that
overwhelming solitude that she experienced
(Laurence).
Understanding the background, style, and shift of Sara
Teasdale's life and works is extremely important in
truly analyzing her poems: "The Gift," "The Lighted
Window," "Love Songs," and "Fear." She grew up in an
evolving world while cities were becoming more
industrialized. With industrialization, came the growth
of artistry. Many artists, poets, and writers were

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moving into largely populated cities in hopes of a

better chance for their works. Being in such a cultural
city, Sara was influenced 5 by the expanding artistry,
which explains one of the main reasons she became a
poet. Sara also faced a duality in her nature, since she
was taught to be an obedient young lady, but was
brought up in an industrialized and changing world
(Cain). Carol B. Schoen analyzed this duality when
reading Teasdale's works (Cain). She found that the
duality is a conflict between the Victorian expectations
imposed by Sara's mother and Sara's own erotic
feelings (Cain). This conflict is reflected in Teasdale's
poetry through the contrast of "silence" and "sound,"
the contrast of reality and a world of dreams, and the
contrast between pain and pleasure (Cain). Teasdale's
background clearly influenced her writing and is
imperative in truly understanding her writing style
and the shift that it faces.
Being a classical poet, Teasdale's poems consisted of
forms like quatrains or sonnets that had pure 6 ,
openhearted lyrics ("Teasdale, Sara"). Teasdale's
poetry contained more of nature and beauty, rather
than distinct love poetry (Cain). Reoccurring images
like the sea and stars show her love for nature's
beauty, and the moon and snow symbolize resignation
and melancholy (Cain). Teasdale's poetry also
consisted of a woman's changing perspective on
beauty, love, and death. Many of her poems show that
developments in her own 7 life may have led to these
changing perspectives. One of Teasdale's good
childhood friends, Marguerite Wilkinson, once said,
"Sara Teasdale has found a philosophy of life and
death," having "grown intellectually since the
publication of her earlier books" and displaying a
"growth in artistry" ("Sara Teasdale"). Even people

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during her lifetime noticed the ever-growing changes

in Teasdale's poetry. Some people even realized that
her writing was affected by the world around her,
including the beginnings of World War I (Izzo).
Teasdale's changing style was seen by all, now and in
the time of her writing, and is because of the
industrializing Modern world filled with new ideas,
where artistry boomed. Teasdale's changing
perspective on life was directly caused by the Modern
period of industrialization of new, bright ideas.
Sara Teasdale lived a life full of twists and turns. Her
Puritan roots, St. Louis background, and fatal illness
gave her a life of continued artistry that lead 8 to her
overwhelming depression. The deepening solitude
that is easily seen in Sara's later works is also seen in
her life. She would no longer attend meetings of the
Poetry Society and was deprived of her daily contact
with Marguerite Wilkinson when Wilkinson passed
away. After her divorce, she felt somewhat relieved,
yet those years did not prove productive. Between her
divorce and death, she only published two works
(Phillips). The later years of Teasdale's life were hard
because of the death of her parents, brother, and
good friend, Amy Lowell (Phillips). Her works show
that she accepted solitude as her condition of life
(Phillips). Sara's background and life clearly influenced
her writing. From her frail childhood to her solemn
depression after her divorce, there is a distinct shift in
her writing. Looking at her works parallel to her life
experiences is key in understanding Teasdale as an
early 20th century, Modern writer.

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