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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• Robert Burns: The Braes O’ Killiecrankie: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Battle Of Sherramuir: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Highland Harry Back Again: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: I Gaed A Waefu’ Gate Yestreen: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Willie Brew’d A Peck O’ Maut: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Extemporaneous Effusion: On being appointed to an Excise division. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Extemporaneous Effusion: On being appointed to an Excise division. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Sonnet On Receiving A Favour: Addressed to Robert Graham, Esq. of Fintry. by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Presentation Stanzas To Correspondents: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Kirk Of Scotland’s Alarm: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Epigram On Francis Grose The Antiquary: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: On The Late Captain Grose’s Peregrinations Thro’ Scotland: Collecting The Antiquities Of That Kingdom by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: My Eppie Adair: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Whistle O’er The Lave O’t: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: The Laddie’s Dear Sel’: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Carle, An The King Come: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: Tam Glen: by Robert Burns
• Robert Burns: My Love, She’s But A Lassie Yet: by Robert Burns
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