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.

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 

• Reverie Of Ormuz The Persian by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Reverie Of Mahomed Akram At The Tamarind Tank by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Request by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Reminiscence Of Mahomed Akram by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Protest By Zahir U Din by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Prayer by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Palm Trees By The Sea by Adela Florence Nicolson
• On The City Wall by Adela Florence Nicolson
• On Pilgrimage by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Ojira To Her Lover by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Oh Unforgotten And Only Lover by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Oh Masters by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Oh Life I Have Taken You For My Lover by Adela Florence Nicolson
• No Rival Like The Past by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Nay Not To Night by Adela Florence Nicolson
• My Paramour Was Loneliness by Adela Florence Nicolson
• My Desire by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Middle Age by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Memory by Adela Florence Nicolson
• Marriage Thoughts By Morsellin Khan by Adela Florence Nicolson

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