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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• Transient by Poetry In English
• To The Serpent by Poetry In English
• To The Nameless Soldier by Poetry In English
• The Woman And The Flame by Poetry In English
• The Wolf039s Postcript To 039little Red Riding Hood039 by Poetry In English
• The Riddle by Poetry In English
• The Queen by Poetry In English
• The Poisoned Present by Poetry In English
• The Markets Are Down 2 Amp A Quarter by Poetry In English
• The Maharishi And The Baby by Poetry In English
• The Immigrant by Poetry In English
• The Fallen House by Poetry In English
• The Poetry That Is Life by Poetry In English
• Take My Hands by Poetry In English
• Tablet by Poetry In English
• Stroll In A Particle by Poetry In English
• Stones by Poetry In English
• Spanish Banks by Poetry In English
• Somber Song by Poetry In English
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