Research Report

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Personal life

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Sara Trevor Teasdale was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1884, into an old, established, and devout family. She was homeschooled until she was nine and traveled frequently to Chicago, where she became part of the circle surrounding Poetry magazine and Harriet Monroe. Teasdale published Sonnets to Duse, and Other Poems, her first volume of verse, in 1907. Her second collection, Helen of Troy, and Other Poems, followed in 1911, and her third, Rivers to the Sea, in 1915.

In 1914 Teasdale married Ernst Filsinger; she had previously rejected a number of other suitors, including Vachel Lindsay. She moved with her new husband to New York City in 1916. 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, which had appeared in 1917. She published three more volumes of poetry during her lifetime: Flame and Shadow (1920), Dark of the Moon (1926), and Stars To-night (1930). Teasdale's work had always been chara

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Schooling

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High School: Mary Institute
University: Hosmer Hall (1903)
First school: None, Homeschooled until 9 years old
When Teasdale was ten, she had the first communication with her peers. Her parents sent her to Miss Ellen Dean Lockwood’s school for boys and girls.

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Legacy

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Teasdale’s works continue to be admired by poets everywhere. her works show us what a lovely person she was, and how much she appreciated the beautiful things about life. Her love for beautiful things appeared in her poetry. She was a very talented poet, and we are glad she shared her talent with us.

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Talent Development

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Her talent for creating classical, romantic verses developed greatly during the poet’s time in New York City, seen especially in Flame and Shadow (1920) and Dark of the Moon (1926), the collections published before she and her husband divorced unhappily in September of 1929.