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 

• Mother’s Death 1981 by Michael S Wilson by Poetry In English
• Money, for a Decent Human Life without You by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• Migration of the Mind by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• Mid-Autumn Moon by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• Meeting with Te Rauparaha by Michael O’Leary by Poetry In English
• Matrimony by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• March on, Yes! by Miles by Poetry In English
• Make Love and War by Michael O’Leary by Poetry In English
• Ma Wonders by Miraj Patel by Poetry In English
• Lullaby of the Onion by Miguel Hernandez by Poetry In English
• Live With Me On Earth Under the Invisible Daylight Moon by Milton Acorn by Poetry In English
• Life of Paradoxes by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• Languaculture by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• Key and Knife (Two Haiku) by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• (Inner Tube) by Michael Ondaatje by Michael Ondaatje
• In the Forest of Life by Mike Yuan by Poetry In English
• If You Ask Me by Miraj Patel by Poetry In English
• If I Got You by Miraj Patel by Poetry In English
• I Wish This Lovely Time Never Ends by Miraj Patel by Poetry In English
• I sink as I sail magnificently by Michael Nikoletseas by Poetry In English

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Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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