Sara Teasdale's poem, Only In Sleep, is a beautiful recollection of childhood memories that also captures the sadness of growing up. It also has a really pretty rendition that has been turned into a musical piece. Teasdale’s writing is so personal, and she references specific memories in her childhood. Like the name of her friends, their color and texture of hair, and specific moments of playing with them together. Even if you can’t relate to these things, the overall feeling of nostalgia is appealing to all the readers. Teasdale grew up in St. Louis, MO but also spent a lot of time in Chicago. Her family was very wealthy. In my opinion, she has been excluded from the limelight she deserves. She was very popular in her lifetime and won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. She married Ernst Filisger in 1914. There were many men that went after her, but she chose Filisger. They divorced in 1929 and she then experienced a ton of mental health issues. She then suffered from a terrible bout of pneumonia, and then committed suicide in 1933. A link to the poem can be found here.
From Brittanica
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