An Interview with Sara Teasdale

Winner of the Five Hundred Dollar Prize awarded by Columbia University
For the Best Book of Poems Published in 1917

Sara Teasdale, (Mrs. E. B. Filsinger) has been paid one of the highest honors that a poet in America can achieve. She has just been awarded the Five Hundred Dollar Prize offered by Columbia University for the best book of poetry published during the last year. The selection of Miss Teasdale's volume, "Love Songs", (The Macmillan Co.) by a jury of eminent critics is an honor especially to be coveted, since any one of the five hundred or more volumes of verse by American writers issued during 1917 was eligible. Besides "Love Songs", Sara Teasdale is the author of "Helen of Troy and Other Poems" (G. P. Putnam's Sons) "Rivers to the Sea", (The Macmillan Co.) and an anthology, "The Answering Voice; One Hundred Love Lyricies by Women" (Houghton Mifflin Co.).

A poet so well known would be certain to hold important views and theories of her own. Miss Teasdale was asked to outline her ideas regarding poetic form. She said:

"To begin with, I should say that poetic form is not of any real importance at all. The only vital thing about a poem is its content. If a poem is of any value it must spring directly from the experience of the writer -- not necessarily from an external experience, but at least from a spiritual one. If a poem is sincere, and springs from deep emotion, no matter what the form, it will be of value to us. Browning said that the styles in music change every thirty years. The styles in poetry change

even oftener. As in dress, so in poetry, the old fashion becomes the new,
and the new loses its novelty and becomes the outworn. If melody is
rare in some of the most talked-of poetry today, it is because it was
over-prominent in the verse of thirty years ago.

"At present we are experiencing a reaction from Swinburne, Kipling, and many lesser men. Yet, even now, when the revival of free verse, so called, is still only a few years old, its most enthusiastic champions are turning again to the melodic poetry that seems more luxurious, and richly expressive. After all, whether a poem is written in free verse or in melodic rhymed verse, it is of no consequence, if the writer is expressing himself concisely and honestly. Could anything be more adequately expressed, more stirring and patriotic, in the most splendid sense of that word, then Edgar Lee Masters' poem, "Draw the Sword, O Republic"? It is in free verse. On the other hand, take Witter Bynner's lyric, "The Phoebe Bird", which, while in regular metre and fully rhymed, is equally strong in its own way, and equally perfect.

"As I have said, the individuality of the poet and the nature of his
subject are the only factors to be taken into consideration when one discusses
the relative value of free or rhymed verse. The idea of such a poem as
Burns's "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon" in free verse is inconceivable.
On the other hand, some of Amy Lowell's vivid free verse, such as her 'Corn-
ucopia of Red and Green Comfits', would be obviously out of place in smooth
rhymed verse.

"Poets, as well as all other artists, may be roughly divided into two
groups: those who are seeking to face life and illuminate it by their work,
and those who turn from its hard realities and seek an escape from life in
their art. Neither one of these groups can claim to be more valuable ar-
tistically than the other. Who would be willing to lose such an artist as

-2-