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 

• Hand Dark by Ada Cambridge
• Granny by Ada Cambridge
• Future Verdict by Ada Cambridge
• Easter Decorations by Ada Cambridge
• Dawnlight On The Sea by Ada Cambridge
• Dawn by Ada Cambridge
• Dawn God039s Sabbath by Ada Cambridge
• Candle Lord by Ada Cambridge
• By The Camp Fire by Ada Cambridge
• By A Norfolk Broad by Ada Cambridge
• Baptistry by Ada Cambridge
• Aunt Dorothys Lecture by Ada Cambridge
• At Sea by Ada Cambridge
• At Long Last by Ada Cambridge
• An Old Doll by Ada Cambridge
• An Anniversary by Ada Cambridge
• All Saints Day 1868 by Ada Cambridge
• All Saints Day 1867 by Ada Cambridge
• After Our Likeness by Ada Cambridge
• A Story At Dusk by Ada Cambridge

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