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 those whose blood, in pious duty shed,
Hallows the soil where that same wine had birth.
Here, by devoted comrades laid away,
Along our lines they slumber where they fell,
Beside the crater at the Ferme d’Alger
And up the bloody slopes of La Pompelle,
And round the city whose cathedral towers
The enemies of Beauty dared profane,
And in the mat of multicolored flowers
That clothe the sunny chalk-fields of Champagne.
Under the little crosses where they rise
The soldier rests. Now round him undismayed
The cannon thunders, and at night he lies
At peace beneath the eternal fusillade. . . .
That other generations might possess –;
From shame and menace free in years to come –;
A richer heritage of happiness,
He marched to that heroic martyrdom.
Esteeming less the forfeit that he paid
Than undishonored that his flag might float
Over the towers of liberty, he made
His breast the bulwark and his blood the moat.
Obscurely sacrificed, his nameless tomb,
Bare of the sculptor’s art, the poet’s lines,
Summer shall flush with poppy-fields in bloom,
And Autumn yellow with maturing vines.
There the grape-pickers at their harvesting
Shall lightly tread and load their wicker trays,
Blessing his memory as they toil and sing
In the slant sunshine of October days. . . .
I love to think that if my blood should be
So privileged to sink where his has sunk,
I shall not pass from Earth entirely,
But when the banquet rings, when healths are drunk,
And faces that the joys of living fill
Glow radiant with laughter and good cheer,
In beaming cups some spark of me shall still
Brim toward the lips that once I held so dear.
So shall one coveting no higher plane
Than nature clothes in color and flesh and tone,
Even from the grave put upward to attain
The dreams youth cherished and missed and might have known;
And that strong need that strove unsatisfied
Toward earthly beauty in all forms it wore,
Not death itself shall utterly divide
From the belovèd shapes it thirsted for.
Alas, how many an adept for whose arms
Life held delicious offerings perished here,
How many in the prime of all that charms,
Crowned with all gifts that conquer and endear!
Honor them not so much with tears and flowers,
But you with whom the sweet fulfilment lies,
Where in the anguish of atrocious hours
Turned their last thoughts and closed their dying eyes,
Rather when music on bright gatherings lays
Its tender spell, and joy is uppermost,
Be mindful of the men they were, and raise
Your glasses to them in one silent toast.
Drink to them –; amorous of dear Earth as well,
They asked no tribute lovelier than this –;
And in the wine that ripened where they fell,
Oh, frame your lips as though it were a kiss.
A few random poems:
- The Dead King by Rudyard Kipling
- Федор Сологуб – Лежу и дышу осторожно
- I Ask Someone To Resolve by Shahida Latif
- Wolves by Mary Bone
- The Seeing Eye poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Robert Burns: Wilt Thou Be My Dearie?:
- The Rock Cries Out to Us Today by Maya Angelou
- When I Watch the Living Meet poem – Alfred Edward Housman
- A Palanquin Of Love by Vaishnavi Prakash
- A Reminiscence poem – Amy Levy poems | Poems and Poetry
- Gamajun, the Prophetic Bird poem – Aleksandr Blok poems | Poetry Monster
- Ouija by Sylvia Plath
- The Gallery poem – Andrew Marvell poems
- Sonnet 145: Those lips that Love’s own hand did make by William Shakespeare
- A Tempest in a Teacup poem – A. Van Jordan poems | Poetry Monster
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Владимир Маяковский – Помогите цинготным детям (Главполитпросвет №274)
- Владимир Маяковский – Помогай фронту… (РОСТА №480)
- Владимир Маяковский – Помните
- Владимир Маяковский – Помни о дне красной казармы! (РОСТА № 732)
- Владимир Маяковский – Поляки-крестьяне, чтоб вольными быть…
- Владимир Маяковский – Польша
- Владимир Маяковский – Политические партии в России
- Владимир Маяковский – Поэт рабочий
- Владимир Маяковский – ПОДХОДИ, ТОВАРИЩ, СМОТРИ ЛУЧШЕ… (Главполитпросвет №69)
- Владимир Маяковский – Подписи к рисункам в журнале “ВОБ”
- Владимир Маяковский – Подлиза
- Владимир Маяковский – Почему нет помощи от Румынии (Главполитпросвет №327)
- Владимир Маяковский – Победой увенчав Октябрьский бой… (Главполитпросвет №364)
- Владимир Маяковский – По городам Союза
- Владимир Маяковский – Плюшкин
- Владимир Маяковский – Плакаты, 1928
- Владимир Маяковский – Плакат о жилищно-строительном займе
- Владимир Маяковский – Письмо Татьяне Яковлевой
- Владимир Маяковский – Письмо к любимой Молчанова, брошенной им
- Владимир Маяковский – Пилсудский
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
Search engines:
Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)
Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.
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.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Alan Seeger (1888-1916) was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musician, Pete Seeger.