If you have been reviewing figurative language techniques, “The New Moon” by Sara Teasdale is an excellent poem to annotate and appease the curriculum standard gods. Copy this poem on quarter sheets and print it out for students to tape in their writer’s notebooks an annotate.
The New Moon
by Sara Teasdale (1920)
Day, you have bruised and beaten me,
As rain beats down the bright, proud sea,
Beaten my body, bruised my soul,
Left me nothing lovely or whole—
Yet I have wrested a gift from you,
Day that dies in dusky blue:
For suddenly over the factories
I saw a moon in the cloudy seas—
A wisp of beauty all alone
In a world as hard and gray as stone—
Oh who could be bitter and want to die
When a maiden moon wakes up in the sky?
But there’s more to this poem. It’s a poem about how hope glimmers. Hope may not outweigh the things that “bruise” or “beat” us in a day. In the opening line, “Day” is personified as a physically abusive person, and sometimes a day can feel that way!
Even the glimmer of hope matters, Teasdale decides, having the power to overcome great despair, as the penultimate line of the poem suggests.
Share with students the image of a new moon from Astronomy below, something they have learned about in science class.
Discuss: How does our knowledge that the new moon is mostly dark contribute to our understanding of the poem? What is the double meaning of poem’s title?
In their notebooks or at the whiteboard, invite students, perhaps in pairs, to create and sketch another image that could symbolize a glimmer of hope and explain their symbolism sketch to the class.
Looking for more poetry pauses like this one?
Check out my book, Poetry Pauses, from Corwin or from Amazon.
Also, as a companion to this series of posts, check out the re-release of the pre-recorded, thirty-minute webinar, Poetry for the Dark Days with 10 poetry pauses, published in neither the blog nor the book, to help see us through the literal and figurative dark days this winter. It’s available now through November 1, 2025 for download. Once it’s yours, you can watch it at whatever time works for you.
Note: Amazon links on this page earn a small commission for the author.
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