SOURCE: “Sara Teasdale,” in Poets of Our Time, Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1941, pp. 207-42.

In the following essay, Brenner elucidates the defining characteristics of Teasdale's verse.

Out of the happiness, the joy, the sorrow, the “soul's distress and body's pain” of a sensitive woman, Sara Teasdale made seven volumes of verse, delicately but firmly wrought, simply but authoritatively stated. In them can be traced the record of a developing personality. Yet it is not a thoroughly complete personality that is therein expressed; for in spite of the sincerity and frankness with which are revealed some of the most intimate emotions possible to experience, there is also present a strong spirit of reticence surrounding what the poet says and, consequently, restricting what the reader may know.

Unmeaning phrase and wordless measure, That unencumbered loveliness Which is a poet's secret treasure Sings in me now, and sings no less That...