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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Poems in English 

• A Serenade poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин
• A Magic Moment I Remember poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин
• Winter – The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• Vertumnus and Pomona : Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book 14 [v. 623-771] poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• Verses Left by Mr. Pope poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• Translation of a Prayer of Brutus poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• To the Author of a Poem Entitled Succession poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• To Mrs. M. B. On Her Birthday poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• To Mr. Thomas Southern, on his Birth-Day poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Three Gentle Shepherds poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Temple of Fame poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Messiah : A Sacred Eclogue poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Looking-Glass. : on Mrs. Pulteney poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Iliad: Book VI (excerpt) poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Fable of Dryope – Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 9, [v. 324-393] poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Dying Christian to His Soul poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Dunciad: Book IV poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Dunciad: Book III. poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope
• The Dunciad: Book II. poem – Alexander Pope by Alexander Pope

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