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Sara Teasdale

Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) was a lyrical American poet, the first woman to earn the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1918 for her collection, Love Songs. She also published under the name, Sara Teasdale Filsinger, after her marriage in 1914.
Sara was a sickly child of such poor health that she was homeschooled until she was finally well enough to attend school, at the age of 10. She began publishing poetry in 1907, both in her local paper and her first collection, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems. Subsequent collections included Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911), Rivers to the Sea (1915), and Love Songs (1917).
In her late twenties, Teasdale had several suitors. Vachel Lindsay was one of them. He loved Teasdale but declined to propose marriage, believing that he could never provide her with the type of financial security that would keep her happy. Instead she married an admirer of poetry, Ernst Filsinger, in 1914. They moved to New York City to inhabit an apartment on Central Park West on the Upper West Side. While her husband was traveling, Teasdale moved interstate for three months to satisfy the criteria to divorce. Without communicating her intent to her husband. He was only informed at her attorney’s insistence as the divorce was in process. Filsinger was shocked and surprised but had no recourse. Teasdale than moved two blocks away and rekindled a friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was now married with children. In 1933 she overdosed on sleeping pills.
While some speculate that the poem I Shall Not Care was penned as a suicide note, that is not true. The poem was published in 1915, eighteen years earlier.
Teasdale’s 1918 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry is a landmark on The American Literature Timeline. You may also enjoy reading the works of Edna St. Vincent Millay, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923. We feature both poets in our collection of Pulitzer Prize Winners.

Poems

  • A Ballad Of The Two Knights
  • A Boy
  • A Cry
  • Advice To A Girl
  • A Fantasy
  • After Death
  • After Love
  • After Parting
  • Alchemy
  • A Little While
  • Alone
  • A Maiden
  • A Minuet Of Mozart’s
  • Anadyomene
  • A November Night
  • A Prayer
  • April
  • April Song
  • Arcturus
  • A Song Of The Princess
  • A Song To Eleonora Duse In “Francesca da Rimini “
  • At Midnight
  • At Night
  • At Sea
  • August Moonrise
  • A Winter Bluejay
  • A Winter Night
  • Barter
  • Beatrice
  • Because
  • Bells
  • Blue Squills
  • Broadway
  • Buried Love
  • But Not To Me
  • By The Sea
  • Central Park At Dusk
  • Chance
  • Change
  • Child, Child
  • Christmas Carol
  • Come
  • Compensation
  • Coney Island
  • Crowned
  • Day And Night
  • Dead Love
  • Debt
  • Debtor
  • Deep In The Night
  • Desert Pools
  • Dew
  • Did You Never Know
  • Doctors
  • Dooryard Roses
  • Doubt
  • Dreams
  • Dream Song
  • Driftwood
  • Dusk In Autumn
  • Dusk In June
  • Dusk In War Time
  • Dust
  • Ebb Tide
  • Effigy Of A Nun
  • Eight Oclock
  • Embers
  • Enough
  • Epitaph
  • Erinna
  • Evening: New York
  • Faces
  • Fault
  • Faults
  • Fear
  • February
  • February Twilight
  • Florence
  • For The Anniversary Of John Keats Death
  • Four Winds
  • From The North
  • From The Sea
  • From The Woolworth Tower
  • Galahad In The Castle Of The Maidens
  • Gifts
  • Gramercy Park
  • Grandfathers Love
  • Gray Eyes
  • Gray Fog
  • Guenevere
  • Helen Of Troy
  • Hidden Love
  • Houses Of Dreams
  • I Am Not Yours
  • If Death Is Kind
  • If I Must Go
  • I Have Loved Hours At Sea
  • I Know The Stars
  • I Love You
  • Immortal
  • In A Cuban Garden
  • In A Garden
  • In A Railroad Station
  • In A Restaurant
  • In A Subway Station
  • In Davids “Childs Garden Of Verses”
  • Indian Summer
  • In Memoriam F.O.S.
  • In Spring, Santa Barbara
  • Interlude: Songs Out Of Sorrow
  • In The Carpenters Shop
  • In The End
  • In The Metropolitan Museum
  • In The Train
  • I Remembered
  • I Shall Not Care
  • I Thought Of You
  • It Is Not A Word
  • It Is Not A Word Spoken
  • It Will Not Change
  • I Would Live In Your Love
  • Jewels
  • Jewls
  • Joy
  • June Night
  • Leaves
  • Lessons
  • Less Than The Cloud To The Wind
  • Let It Be Forgotten
  • Lights
  • Like Barley Bending
  • Longing
  • Lost Things
  • Love And Death
  • Love-Free
  • Love In Autumn
  • Lovely Chance
  • Love Me
  • Love Songs
  • Madeira From The Sea
  • Marianna Alcoforando
  • May
  • May Day
  • May Night
  • May Wind
  • Meadowlarks
  • Message
  • Moods
  • Moonlight
  • Morning
  • Morning Song
  • My Heart Is Heavy
  • Nahant
  • New Love And Old
  • New Year’s Dawn – Broadway
  • Nightfall
  • Night In Arizona
  • Night Song At Amalfi
  • November
  • Oh Day Of Fire And Sun
  • Oh You Are Coming
  • Old Tunes
  • On A March Day
  • Only In Sleep
  • On The Death Of Swinburne
  • On The Dunes
  • On The Tower
  • Open Windows
  • Other Men
  • Over The Roofs
  • Pain
  • Paris In Spring
  • Peace
  • Pierrot
  • Pierrots Song
  • Pity
  • Places
  • Primavera Mia
  • Redbirds
  • Red Maples
  • Refuge
  • Riches
  • Rispetto
  • Rivers To The Sea
  • Roses And Rue
  • Roundel
  • Sappho I
  • Sappho II
  • Sappho III
  • Sara Teasdale
  • Sea Longing
  • September Midnights
  • Silence
  • Since There Is No Escape
  • Sleepless
  • Snowfall
  • Snow Song
  • Song At Capri
  • Song I
  • Song II
  • Song III
  • Song Making
  • Sonnet
  • Souls Birth
  • Spray
  • Spring In War Time
  • Spring Night
  • Spring Rain
  • Spring Torrents
  • Stars
  • Summer Night, Riverside
  • Summer Storm
  • Sunset: St. Louis
  • Swallow Flight
  • Swans
  • Testament
  • The Answer
  • The Blind
  • The Broken Field
  • The Carpenters Son
  • The Cloud
  • The Coin
  • The Crystal Gazer
  • The Dreams Of My Heart
  • The Faery Forest
  • The Flight
  • The Fountain
  • The Garden
  • The Ghost
  • The Gift
  • The Giver
  • The Hearts House
  • The House Of Dreams
  • The India Wharf
  • The Inn Of Earth
  • The Kind Moon
  • The Kiss
  • The Lamp
  • The Lighted Window
  • The Lights Of New York
  • The Long Hill
  • The Look
  • The Love That Goes A-Begging
  • The Meeting
  • The Metropolitan Tower
  • The Mother Of A Poet
  • The Mystery
  • The Net
  • The New Moon
  • The Nights Remember
  • The Old Maid
  • The Poor House
  • The Prayer
  • The Princess In The Tower
  • The Return
  • There Will Come Soft Rains
  • The River
  • The Rose
  • The Rose And The Bee
  • The Sanctuary
  • The Sea Wind
  • The Shrine
  • The Silent Battle
  • The Solitary
  • The Song For Colin
  • The Song Maker
  • The Star
  • The Storm
  • The Treasure
  • The Tree
  • The Tree Of Song
  • The Unchanging
  • The Unseen
  • The Voice
  • The Wanderer
  • The Wayfarer
  • The Wind
  • The Wind In The Hemlock
  • The Wine
  • The Years
  • Thoughts
  • Tides
  • To A Castillan Song
  • To An Aeolian Harp
  • To A Picture Of Eleanor Duse
  • To A Picture Of Eleonora Duse As “Francesca da Rimini”
  • To A Picture Of Eleonora Duse In “The Dead City” II
  • To A Picture Of Eleonora Duse With The Greek Fire, In “Francesca da Rimini”
  • To Cleis
  • To Dick, On His Sixth Birthday
  • To E.
  • To Eleonora Duse I
  • To Eleonora Duse II
  • To Eleonora Duse In “The Dead City”
  • To Erinna
  • To Joy
  • To L. R. E.
  • To-Night
  • To One Away
  • To Rose
  • To Sappho I
  • To Sappho II
  • To The Years
  • Triolets
  • Twilight
  • Two Minds
  • Understanding
  • Union Square
  • Vignettes Overseas
  • Villa Serbelloni, Bellaggio
  • Vox Corporis
  • Water Lilies
  • What Do I Care
  • When Love Goes
  • When Love Was Born
  • While I May
  • White Fog
  • Wild Asters
  • Winter Dusk
  • Winter Stars
  • Wisdom
  • Wishes
  • Young Love
  • Youth And The Pilgrim