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 the walls across where orange windows burned.

Out of the starry south provoking rumors brought us

Far promise of the spring already northward turned.

And breast drew near to breast, and round its soft desire

My arm uncertain stole and clung there unrepelled.

I thought that nevermore my heart would hover nigher

To the last flower of bliss that Nature’s garden held.

There, in your beauty’s sweet abandonment to pleasure,

The mute, half-open lips and tender, wondering eyes,

I saw embodied first smile back on me the treasure

Long sought across the seas and back of summer skies.

Dear face, when courted Death shall claim my limbs and find them

Laid in some desert place, alone or where the tides

Of war’s tumultuous waves on the wet sands behind them

Leave rifts of gasping life when their red flood subsides,

Out of the past’s remote delirious abysses

Shine forth once more as then you shone, — beloved head,

Laid back in ecstasy between our blinding kisses,

Transfigured with the bliss of being so coveted.

And my sick arms will part, and though hot fever sear it,

My mouth will curve again with the old, tender flame.

And darkness will come down, still finding in my spirit

The dream of your brief love, and on my lips your name.

II

You loved me on that moonlit night long since.

You were my queen and I the charming prince

Elected from a world of mortal men.

You loved me once. . . . What pity was it, then,

You loved not Love. . . . Deep in the emerald west,

Like a returning caravel caressed

By breezes that load all the ambient airs

With clinging fragrance of the bales it bears

From harbors where the caravans come down,

I see over the roof-tops of the town

The new moon back again, but shall not see

The joy that once it had in store for me,

Nor know again the voice upon the stair,

The little studio in the candle-glare,

And all that makes in word and touch and glance

The bliss of the first nights of a romance

When will to love and be beloved casts out

The want to question or the will to doubt.

You loved me once. . . . Under the western seas

The pale moon settles and the Pleiades.

The firelight sinks; outside the night-winds moan —

The hour advances, and I sleep alone.

III

Farewell, dear heart, enough of vain despairing!

If I have erred I plead but one excuse —

The jewel were a lesser joy in wearing

That cost a lesser agony to lose.

I had not bid for beautifuller hours

Had I not found the door so near unsealed,

Nor hoped, had you not filled my arms with flowers,

For that one flower that bloomed too far afield.

If I have wept, it was because, forsaken,

I felt perhaps more poignantly than some

The blank eternity from which we waken

And all the blank eternity to come.

And I betrayed how sweet a thing and tender

(In the regret with which my lip was curled)

Seemed in its tragic, momentary splendor

My transit through the beauty of the world.

Poetry Monster – Home

A few random poems:

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 

• Aubade by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• A Lover’s Complaint by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• A Fairy Song by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 128: How oft, when thou, my music, music play’st by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 149: Canst thou, O cruel, say I love thee not by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 148: O me! what eyes hath love put in my head by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 147: My love is as a fever, longing still by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 146: Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 145: Those lips that Love’s own hand did make by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 144: Two loves I have, of comfort and despair by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 143: Lo, as a careful huswife runs to catch by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 142: Love is my sin, and thy dear virtue hate by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 141: In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 140: Be wise as thou art cruel; do not press by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 13: O, that you were your self! But, love, you are by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 138: When my love swears that she is made of truth by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 137: Thou blind fool, Love, what dost thou to mine eyes by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 136: If thy soul check thee that I come so near by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 135: Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy will by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
• Sonnet 134: So, now I have confessed that he is thine by William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

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

Poems by Author and Category

The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works