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Strange Victory
First edition, includes frontispiece drawing and poem in facsimile.
- GenresPoetry
37 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1933
About the author
Sara Teasdale
176 books290 followersSara Teasdale was an American lyrical poet. She was born Sara Trevor Teasdale in St. Louis, Missouri, and after her marriage in 1914 she went by the name Sara Teasdale Filsinger.
Teasdale's first poem was published in Reedy's Mirror, a local newspaper, in 1907. Her first collection of poems, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems, was published that same year.
Teasdale's second collection of poems, Helen of Troy and Other Poems, was published in 1911. It was well received by critics, who praised its lyrical mastery and romantic subject matter.
In the years 1911 to 1914, Teasdale was courted by several men, including poet Vachel Lindsay, who was absolutely in love with her but did not feel that he could provide enough money or stability to keep her satisfied. She chose instead to marry Ernst Filsinger, who had been an admirer of her poetry for a number of years, on December 19, 1914.
Teasdale's third poetry collection, Rivers to the Sea, was published in 1915 and was a best seller, being reprinted several times. A year later, in 1916 she moved to New York City with Filsinger, where they resided in an Upper West Side apartment on Central Park West.
In 1918, her poetry collection Love Songs (released 1917) won three awards: the Columbia University Poetry Society prize, the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America.
Filsinger was away a lot on business which caused a lot of loneliness for Teasdale. In 1929, she moved interstate for three months, thereby satisfying the criteria to gain a divorce. She did not wish to inform Filsinger, and only did so at the insistence of her lawyers as the divorce was going through - Filsinger was shocked and surprised.
Post-divorce, Teasdale remained in New York City, living only two blocks away from her old home on Central Park West. She rekindled her friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was by this time married with children.
In 1933, she committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. Her friend Vachel Lindsay had committed suicide two years earlier. She is interred in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
-taken from: Wikipedia
Teasdale's first poem was published in Reedy's Mirror, a local newspaper, in 1907. Her first collection of poems, Sonnets to Duse and Other Poems, was published that same year.
Teasdale's second collection of poems, Helen of Troy and Other Poems, was published in 1911. It was well received by critics, who praised its lyrical mastery and romantic subject matter.
In the years 1911 to 1914, Teasdale was courted by several men, including poet Vachel Lindsay, who was absolutely in love with her but did not feel that he could provide enough money or stability to keep her satisfied. She chose instead to marry Ernst Filsinger, who had been an admirer of her poetry for a number of years, on December 19, 1914.
Teasdale's third poetry collection, Rivers to the Sea, was published in 1915 and was a best seller, being reprinted several times. A year later, in 1916 she moved to New York City with Filsinger, where they resided in an Upper West Side apartment on Central Park West.
In 1918, her poetry collection Love Songs (released 1917) won three awards: the Columbia University Poetry Society prize, the 1918 Pulitzer Prize for poetry and the annual prize of the Poetry Society of America.
Filsinger was away a lot on business which caused a lot of loneliness for Teasdale. In 1929, she moved interstate for three months, thereby satisfying the criteria to gain a divorce. She did not wish to inform Filsinger, and only did so at the insistence of her lawyers as the divorce was going through - Filsinger was shocked and surprised.
Post-divorce, Teasdale remained in New York City, living only two blocks away from her old home on Central Park West. She rekindled her friendship with Vachel Lindsay, who was by this time married with children.
In 1933, she committed suicide by overdosing on sleeping pills. Her friend Vachel Lindsay had committed suicide two years earlier. She is interred in the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
-taken from: Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
July 3, 2012
Sara, at the end of her life, is singing to us her last songs. She has sang vibrant songs of love and beauty, passionately and without apology. Now as life's day darkens we have her more pensive, more quiet. Less in love with the romance of life,but seeing it clearly nonetheless. Silence, and quietness is a resounding theme in this set of poetry but we are reminded in "Secret Treasures" that just because she no longer writes, does not mean she no longer sings. Whether affected by Vachel's death or merely the weariness of this life, Sara is ready for quiet, for peace, and for rest.
As I read this last collection, that wonderful smell of aged pages, reminding me of a time long past. Sleep well, my dear Sara, may that rest you sought, have found you at last.
As I read this last collection, that wonderful smell of aged pages, reminding me of a time long past. Sleep well, my dear Sara, may that rest you sought, have found you at last.
April 26, 2018
Small, quiet poems. Filled with death as one might suppose. And yet glimmers of life's past and sweeter days emerge as well. The book is not a black, bleak repository of guilt and loneliness.
Once again I wish for half stars because I dislike rating this book at three but do not quite feel that it is a four.
Sara Teasdale's final book of poetry published near her suicide (January 29, 1933 at age 48) just over a year after the suicide of her former lover Vachel Lindsay. One curious thing about the book itself is that it contains an insert on page 17 containing two additional verses of the poem "Truce" and written in her own hand. Or, since the verses are almost identical, this may be Teasdale's original draft of the poem. However, this added slip was reproduced and inserted by the publisher. It seems to be in all the first editions published by Macmillan in October 1933 although the insert is dated March 23, 1931.
Once again I wish for half stars because I dislike rating this book at three but do not quite feel that it is a four.
Sara Teasdale's final book of poetry published near her suicide (January 29, 1933 at age 48) just over a year after the suicide of her former lover Vachel Lindsay. One curious thing about the book itself is that it contains an insert on page 17 containing two additional verses of the poem "Truce" and written in her own hand. Or, since the verses are almost identical, this may be Teasdale's original draft of the poem. However, this added slip was reproduced and inserted by the publisher. It seems to be in all the first editions published by Macmillan in October 1933 although the insert is dated March 23, 1931.
November 26, 2009
A small collection of poems, as far as I can tell, from around the time of when Teasdale's former love committed suicide. Death is a common theme, as well as loss.
"No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed."
"No one worth possessing
Can be quite possessed."
June 3, 2019
Thin and uninteresting collection of short poems. However, as this is neither her best selling "Rivers to the Sea" nor her Pulitzer Prizewinning "Love Songs", perhaps one of those volumes would provide a better assessment of her worth as a poet.
March 8, 2022
This is one of the most beautiful collections I’ve ever read. The poems do only what they must. Bare and spare and sorrowful, there is a sad beauty throughout. It’s lovely.
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June 30, 2026thesis: i am just so full of love, and love given is never love lost, though death will take us all eventually
February 17, 2016
I'm not really attached to most worldly possessions, but this is a book of poetry that I will truly cherish for the rest of my life. When I was first introduced to her works in my choir singing years, I immediately fell in love with Sara Teasdale's work. It's a heartwarming feeling to know that some of the poems I have deeply connected with - "Grace Before Sleep", "There Will Be Rest", "In Memory of Vachel Lindsay", and "Advice to a Girl" - aren't just merely words, but thoughts, feelings, and emotions that she expressed to the end. Each time I re-read her words, I connect further. I empathize with her deep-rooted loneliness and sense of sadness and truly appreciate her somber tone. We are not alone, even when we wish we were the most.
October 25, 2012
given to me as a gift; beautiful.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews