Fragments
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) In that fair capital where Pleasure, crowned Amidst her myriad courtiers, riots and rules, I too have been a suitor. Radiant eyes Were my life’s warmth and sunshine, outspread arms My gilded deep horizons. I rejoiced In yielding to all amorous influence And multiple impulsion of the flesh, To […]
Eudaemon
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) O happiness, I know not what far seas, Blue hills and deep, thy sunny realms surround, That thus in Music’s wistful harmonies And concert of sweet sound A rumor steals, from some uncertain shore, Of lovely things outworn or gladness yet in store: Whether thy beams be pitiful […]
El Extraviado
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Over the radiant ridges borne out on the offshore wind, I have sailed as a butterfly sails whose priming wings unfurled Leave the familiar gardens and visited fields behind To follow a cloud in the east rose-flushed on the rim of the world. I have strayed from the […]
Do You Remember Once
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Do you remember once, in Paris of glad faces, The night we wandered off under the third moon’s rays And, leaving far behind bright streets and busy places, Stood where the Seine flowed down between its quiet quais? The city’s voice was hushed; the placid, lustrous waters Mirrored […]
Coucy
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) The rooks aclamor when one enters here Startle the empty towers far overhead; Through gaping walls the summer fields appear, Green, tan, or, poppy-mingled, tinged with red. The courts where revel rang deep grass and moss Cover, and tangled vines have overgrown The gate where banners blazoned with a […]
Champagne 1914 15
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) In the glad revels, in the happy fetes, When cheeks are flushed, and glasses gilt and pearled With the sweet wine of France that concentrates The sunshine and the beauty of the world, Drink sometimes, you whose footsteps yet may tread The undisturbed, delightful paths of Earth, To […]
Broceliande
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Broceliande! in the perilous beauty of silence and menacing shade, Thou art set on the shores of the sea down the haze of horizons untravelled, unscanned. Untroubled, untouched with the woes of this world are the moon-marshalled hosts that invade Broceliande. Only at dusk, when lavender clouds in […]
Bellinglise
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Deep in the sloping forest that surrounds The head of a green valley that I know, Spread the fair gardens and ancestral grounds Of Bellinglise, the beautiful chateau. Through shady groves and fields of unmown grass, It was my joy to come at dusk and see, Filling a little […]
At The Tomb Of Napoleon
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) I stood beside his sepulchre whose fame, Hurled over Europe once on bolt and blast, Now glows far off as storm-clouds overpast Glow in the sunset flushed with glorious flame. Has Nature marred his mould? Can Art acclaim No hero now, no man with whom men side As with […]
Ariosto Orlando Furioso Canto X 91 99
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Ruggiero, to amaze the British host, And wake more wonder in their wondering ranks, The bridle of his winged courser loosed, And clapped his spurs into the creature’s flanks; High in the air, even to the topmost banks Of crudded cloud, uprose the flying horse, And now above the […]
Antinous
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) Stretched on a sunny bank he lay at rest, Ferns at his elbow, lilies round his knees, With sweet flesh patterned where the cool turf pressed, Flowerlike crept o’er with emerald aphides. Single he couched there, to his circling flocks Piping at times some happy shepherd’s tune, Nude, with […]
An Ode To Antares
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) At dusk, when lowlands where dark waters glide Robe in gray mist, and through the greening hills The hoot-owl calls his mate, and whippoorwills Clamor from every copse and orchard-side, I watched the red star rising in the East, And while his fellows of the flaming sign From prisoning […]
All Thats Not Love
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) All that’s not love is the dearth of my days, The leaves of the volume with rubric unwrit, The temple in times without prayer, without praise, The altar unset and the candle unlit. Let me survive not the lovable sway Of early desire, nor see when it goes […]
After An Epigram Of Clement Marot
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) The lad I was I longer now Nor am nor shall be evermore. Spring’s lovely blossoms from my brow Have shed their petals on the floor. Thou, Love, hast been my lord, thy shrine Above all gods’ best served by me. Dear Love, could life again be mine How […]
A Message To America
A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916) You have the grit and the guts, I know; You are ready to answer blow for blow You are virile, combative, stubborn, hard, But your honor ends with your own back-yard; Each man intent on his private goal, You have no feeling for the whole; What singly none would […]
The Triumph by Siegfried Sassoon
When life was a cobweb of stars for Beauty who came In the whisper of leaves or a bird’s lone cry in the glen, On dawn-lit hills and horizons girdled with flame I sought for the triumph that troubles the faces of men. With death in the terrible flickering gloom of the fight I was […]
The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
My hopes, my messengers I sent Across the ten years continent Of Time. In dream I saw them go– And thought, ‘When they come back I’ll show To what far place I lead my friends Where this disastrous decade ends.’ Like one in purgatory, I learned The loss of hope. For none returned, And long […]
The Portrait by Siegfried Sassoon
I watch you, gazing at me from the wall, And wonder how you’d match your dreams with mine, If, mastering time’s illusion, I could call You back to share this quiet candle-shine. For you were young, three hundred years ago; And by your looks I guess that you were wise… Come, whisper soft, and Death […]
Sporting Acquaintances by Siegfried Sassoon
I watched old squatting Chimpanzee: he traced His painful patterns in the dirt: I saw Red-haired Ourang-utang, whimsical-faced, Chewing a sportsman’s meditative straw: I’d met them years ago, and half-forgotten They’d come to grief (but how, I’d never heard, Poor beggars!); still, it seemed so rude and rotten To stand and gape at them with […]
The Triumph by Siegfried Sassoon
When life was a cobweb of stars for Beauty who came In the whisper of leaves or a bird’s lone cry in the glen, On dawn-lit hills and horizons girdled with flame I sought for the triumph that troubles the faces of men. With death in the terrible flickering gloom of the fight I was […]
The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
My hopes, my messengers I sent Across the ten years continent Of Time. In dream I saw them go– And thought, ‘When they come back I’ll show To what far place I lead my friends Where this disastrous decade ends.’ Like one in purgatory, I learned The loss of hope. For none returned, And long […]
Sassoon’s Public Statement Of Defiance by Siegfried Sassoon
“I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe the war is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this war, upon which I entered as […]
The Portrait by Siegfried Sassoon
I watch you, gazing at me from the wall, And wonder how you’d match your dreams with mine, If, mastering time’s illusion, I could call You back to share this quiet candle-shine. For you were young, three hundred years ago; And by your looks I guess that you were wise… Come, whisper soft, and Death […]
Sporting Acquaintances by Siegfried Sassoon
I watched old squatting Chimpanzee: he traced His painful patterns in the dirt: I saw Red-haired Ourang-utang, whimsical-faced, Chewing a sportsman’s meditative straw: I’d met them years ago, and half-forgotten They’d come to grief (but how, I’d never heard, Poor beggars!); still, it seemed so rude and rotten To stand and gape at them with […]
The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
My hopes, my messengers I sent Across the ten years continent Of Time. In dream I saw them go– And thought, ‘When they come back I’ll show To what far place I lead my friends Where this disastrous decade ends.’ Like one in purgatory, I learned The loss of hope. For none returned, And long […]
Solar Eclipse by Siegfried Sassoon
Observe these blue solemnities of sky Offering for the academes of after-ages A mythologic welkin freaked with white! Listen : one tiny tinkling rivulet Accentuates the super-sultry stillness That drones on ripening landscapes which imply Serene Parnassus plagued with amorous goats. * * * * Far down the vale Apollo has pursued The noon-bedazzled nymph […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
Prelude: The Troops by Siegfried Sassoon
Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down The stale despair of night, must now renew Their desolation in the truce of dawn, Murdering the livid hours […]
The Road To Ruin by Siegfried Sassoon
My hopes, my messengers I sent Across the ten years continent Of Time. In dream I saw them go– And thought, ‘When they come back I’ll show To what far place I lead my friends Where this disastrous decade ends.’ Like one in purgatory, I learned The loss of hope. For none returned, And long […]
On Passing The New Menin Gate by Siegfried Sassoon
Who will remember, passing through this Gate, the unheroic dead who fed the guns? Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,- Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones? Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own. Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp; Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone, The armies who endured that sullen […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
In An Underground Dressing Station by Siegfried Sassoon
Quietly they set their burden down: he tried To grin; moaned; moved his head from side to side. He gripped the stretcher; stiffened; glared; and screamed, “O put my leg down, doctor, do!” (He’d got A bullet in his ankle; and he’d been shot Horribly through the guts.) The surgeon seemed So kind and gentle, […]
Return Of The Heroes by Siegfried Sassoon
A lady watches from the crowd, Enthusiastic, flushed, and proud._ “Oh! there’s Sir Henry Dudster! Such a splendid leader! How pleased he looks! What rows of ribbons on his tunic! Such dignity…. Saluting…. (Wave your flag… now, Freda!)… Yes, dear, I saw a Prussian General once,-at Munich. “Here’s the next carriage!… Jack was once in […]
Grandeur Of Ghosts by Siegfried Sassoon
When I have heard small talk about great men I climb to bed; light my two candles; then Consider what was said; and put aside What Such-a-one remarked and Someone-else replied. They have spoken lightly of my deathless friends, (Lamps for my gloom, hands guiding where I stumble,) Quoting, for shallow conversational ends, What Shelley […]
Prelude: The Troops by Siegfried Sassoon
Dim, gradual thinning of the shapeless gloom Shudders to drizzling daybreak that reveals Disconsolate men who stamp their sodden boots And turn dulled, sunken faces to the sky Haggard and hopeless. They, who have beaten down The stale despair of night, must now renew Their desolation in the truce of dawn, Murdering the livid hours […]
On Passing The New Menin Gate by Siegfried Sassoon
Who will remember, passing through this Gate, the unheroic dead who fed the guns? Who shall absolve the foulness of their fate,- Those doomed, conscripted, unvictorious ones? Crudely renewed, the Salient holds its own. Paid are its dim defenders by this pomp; Paid, with a pile of peace-complacent stone, The armies who endured that sullen […]
In An Underground Dressing Station by Siegfried Sassoon
Quietly they set their burden down: he tried To grin; moaned; moved his head from side to side. He gripped the stretcher; stiffened; glared; and screamed, “O put my leg down, doctor, do!” (He’d got A bullet in his ankle; and he’d been shot Horribly through the guts.) The surgeon seemed So kind and gentle, […]
Grandeur Of Ghosts by Siegfried Sassoon
When I have heard small talk about great men I climb to bed; light my two candles; then Consider what was said; and put aside What Such-a-one remarked and Someone-else replied. They have spoken lightly of my deathless friends, (Lamps for my gloom, hands guiding where I stumble,) Quoting, for shallow conversational ends, What Shelley […]
‘Blighters’ by Siegfried Sassoon
The House is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din; ‘We’re sure the Kaiser loves our dear old Tanks!’ I’d like to see a Tank come down the stalls, Lurching to rag-time tunes, or ‘Home, sweet Home’, And there’d be […]