10. Sara Teasdale’s Scenes of Heartbreak
“With rain-quenched torches dripping thru the town – But you have found a god and filched from him – A fire that neither wind nor rain can dim,” wrote poet Sara Teasdale in her poem “The Lights of New York,” a piece that is presumably dedicated to the unquenchable source of inspiration she found in the Big Apple.
Teasdale moved from St. Louis to New York’s West Village in 1914, where she would live for the rest of her life. She wrote poems about heartbreak that took place in Union Square, in Riverside Park, in Gramercy Park, and more, but most often she wrote songs of praise to the city she loved. She wrote about love, death, depression, and disillusionment, always with New York as her backdrop.
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