Appraisal

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Appraisal (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)

The Poem

Sara Teasdale’s “Appraisal,” a metrical lyric poem, displays remarkable complexity despite the surface clarity of its nineteen lines. The poem falls within the tradition of love lyrics that celebrate rather than critique, probe, or explore. As a consequence, it creates poetic dissonance from its first line: “Never think she loves him wholly.” Simultaneously the reader learns that the loved one of the poem, a man, is under critical scrutiny and that the lover, a woman, is the scrutinizer. The reader also immediately understands that the poet is distancing...

[The entire page is 1506 words long]

See Also:

• Sara Teasdale (Poetry)
• Sara Teasdale (Dictionary of World Biography)