The Need To Love

A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)

The need to love that all the stars obey

Entered my heart and banished all beside.

Bare were the gardens where I used to stray;

Faded the flowers that one time satisfied.

Before the beauty of the west on fire,

The moonlit hills from cloister-casements viewed

Cloud-like arose the image of desire,

And cast out peace and maddened solitude.

I sought the City and the hopes it held:

With smoke and brooding vapors intercurled,

As the thick roofs and walls close-paralleled

Shut out the fair horizons of the world—

A truant from the fields and rustic joy,

In my changed thought that image even so

Shut out the gods I worshipped as a boy

And all the pure delights I used to know.

Often the veil has trembled at some tide

Of lovely reminiscence and revealed

How much of beauty Nature holds beside

Sweet lips that sacrifice and arms that yield:

Clouds, window-framed, beyond the huddled eaves

When summer cumulates their golden chains,

Or from the parks the smell of burning leaves,

Fragrant of childhood in the country lanes,

An organ-grinder’s melancholy tune

In rainy streets, or from an attic sill

The blue skies of a windy afternoon

Where our kites climbed once from some grassy hill:

And my soul once more would be wrapped entire

In the pure peace and blessing of those years.

Before the fierce infection of Desire

Had ravaged all the flesh. Through starting tears

Shone that lost Paradise; but, if it did,

Again ere long the prison-shades would fall

That Youth condemns itself to walk amid,

So narrow, but so beautiful withal.

And I have followed Fame with less devotion,

And kept no real ambition but to see

Rise from the foam of Nature’s sunlit ocean

My dream of palpable divinity;

And aught the world contends for to mine eye

Seemed not so real a meaning of success

As only once to clasp before I die

My vision of embodied happiness.

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Poems in English 

• English Poetry. Madison Julius Cawein. Evasion. Мэдисон Джулиус Кавейн. by Poetry In English
• 10 Valentine’s Day Scrapbooking Ideas With or Without Photos by Poetry In English
• The Poetical Works of Tiruloka Sitaram With Translation and Notes – Part II by Poetry In English
• Learn Numbers With Fun Counting Rhymes For Kids by Poetry In English
• African Artists’ Painting Inspiration by Poetry In English
• Self-Care for Creative Artists: 10 Reasons To Care About It by Poetry In English
• Creativity Tool – The Five Senses by Poetry In English
• Love, Romance, Relationship: Some Poetic Scenes! by Poetry In English
• Whisper of the Star by Poetry In English
• Comments: How to Write a Critical Appreciation of a Poem by Poetry In English
• One Great Christmas Verse, Three Incomparable Gifts by Poetry In English
• Reviewing When We Were Slugs! by Poetry In English
• Breathing Stars, Inspiration and the Labyrinth of Correspondence by Poetry In English
• Grow Up: Time to Give Up Your YA Books by Poetry In English
• Writing Science Poetry by Poetry In English
• In These Present Times How Worried Should We Be? by Poetry In English
• 5 Top Sources of Inspiration That Will Help You Become a Successful Entrepreneur by Poetry In English
• How to Write Creative Non-fiction by Poetry In English
• Creative Writing For Stress Relief by Poetry In English
• Publishing Poetry – How To Locate The Best Markets Where You Can See Your Poems In Print by Poetry In English

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Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

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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