Liebestod

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

I who, conceived beneath another star,

Had been a prince and played with life, instead

Have been its slave, an outcast exiled far

From the fair things my faith has merited.

My ways have been the ways that wanderers tread

And those that make romance of poverty —

Soldier, I shared the soldier’s board and bed,

And Joy has been a thing more oft to me

Whispered by summer wind and summer sea

Than known incarnate in the hours it lies

All warm against our hearts and laughs into our eyes.

I know not if in risking my best days

I shall leave utterly behind me here

This dream that lightened me through lonesome ways

And that no disappointment made less dear;

Sometimes I think that, where the hilltops rear

Their white entrenchments back of tangled wire,

Behind the mist Death only can make clear,

There, like Brunhilde ringed with flaming fire,

Lies what shall ease my heart’s immense desire:

There, where beyond the horror and the pain

Only the brave shall pass, only the strong attain.

Truth or delusion, be it as it may,

Yet think it true, dear friends, for, thinking so,

That thought shall nerve our sinews on the day

When to the last assault our bugles blow:

Reckless of pain and peril we shall go,

Heads high and hearts aflame and bayonets bare,

And we shall brave eternity as though

Eyes looked on us in which we would seem fair —

One waited in whose presence we would wear,

Even as a lover who would be well-seen,

Our manhood faultless and our honor clean.

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Poems in English 

• Fancy poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• Epistle To My Brother George poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• Endymion: Book IV poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• Endymion: Book III poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• Endymion: Book II poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• Bright Star, Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• Bards of Passion and of Mirth, written on the Blank Page before Beaumont and Fletcher’s Tragi-Comedy ‘The Fair Maid of the Inn’ poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• Addressed To Haydon poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• A Thing of Beauty (Endymion) poem – John Keats poems by John Keats
• When the Assault Was Intended to the City poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• Upon The Circumcision poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To the Same poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To The Nightingale poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To the Lord Generall Cromwell May 1652 poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To the Lady Margaret Ley poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To Sr Henry Vane The Younger poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To My Lord Fairfax poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To Mr. Lawrence poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To Mr. H. Lawes on His Airs poem – John Milton poems by John Milton
• To Mr. Cyriack Skinner Upon His Blindness poem – John Milton poems by John Milton

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