Perhaps best known for her poem, "The Kiss," Sara Teasdale never really achieved the prominence that her poetry merited, but perhaps, just perhaps, a book like this one makes up for it.

This collection of poems is as varied as it is beautiful. From poems of love and loss to poems based in history, Sara Teasdale is a remarkably multi-faceted poet. They say that most writers repeat one theme over and over for most of their lives. Sara Teasdale does not.

She does, however, have a particular penchant for the ocean, and perhaps this is why I am so drawn to her poetry. Some of her most beautiful work is a love song to the seashore, to the boundless ocean. She captures the essence of the coast, in its many moods, as no one else can. Few poets capture the essence of the world around us as well, or with as much style, as Sara Teasdale.

Stylistically, Sara Teasdale is equally as flexible. From rhyming couplets to Shakespearean sonnets, from lyrics to free verse, "The Collected Poems," allows you a thorough perusal of Teasdale's ever-changing style.

My copy of Sara Teasdale's collected poems is well-loved and well-read. Though I am always careful not to crack the spine, not to dog-ear the pages, not to spill a drop onto my pristine copy, it is well-read. Easily half a dozen bookmarks stick out at odd angles from the top, marking my favorites -- the poems that I am compelled to read again and again. The poems that I could recite from heart, but that I still want to lay my eyes on every now and again.