Customer Reviews (9)

Poetry for non-poetry people
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.

Missing poems
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.

A romantic's heart
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.

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

Sara Teasdale, ISBN 1-56849-345-2
The book is beautifully bound, has a detailed table of contents, and an index of first lines. It is refreshing to have the poems presented without heavy-handed footnotes and biographical intrusions, but the book doesn'thave an editor's name on it, nor does it have an explanatory foreword.

It would be useful to know whether or not these poems were the ones thatMiss Teasdale authorized, or if someone chose to pull them out of her trashcan after she died. Were they reconstructed from notebooks?Was anythingomitted or added to the original manuscripts?

It can be a long way fromfirst draft to final version. Unhappy experiences with gonzo editions ofShakespeare, Haendel's "Messiah," and "Billy Budd" havetaught me to beware of invisible editors. ... Read more

Book Description
1928. Teasdale's work has always been characterized by its simplicity and clarity, her use of classical forms, and her passionate and romantic subject matter. In 1918, she won the Columbia University Poetry Society Prize (which became the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry) and the Poetry Society of America Prize for Love Songs. She later committed suicide. In addition to new poems, this book contains lyrics taken from Rivers to the Sea, Helen of Troy and Other Poems, and one or two from an earlier volume. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Sara's Early Poems Of Love
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.

prompt, & quality
we are very happy with the service we recieved it was prompt and the product was excellent

Lovely "Songs"
"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. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Those who love is worth reading.
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, Ifound them in this book and I still remember them, they stay in your heartand you won't be the same after reading them ... Read more

Book Description
1926. Teasdale's work has always been characterized by its simplicity and clarity, her use of classical forms, and her passionate and romantic subject matter. In 1918, she won the Columbia University Poetry Society Prize (which became the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry) and the Poetry Society of America Prize for Love Songs. She later committed suicide. Rivers to the Sea is her third volume of verse. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Flowing "Rivers"
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. ... Read more

Download Description
Includes the volumes: Flame and Shadow, Helen of Troy and Other Poems, Love Songs, and Rivers to the Sea ... Read more

Book Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of Sara Teasdale, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 1132 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
A Collection of Teasdale's poetry, arranged chronologically from 1907 to 1933. With index of first lines. ... Read more