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.
A few random poems:
- A HYMN TO BACCHUS by Robert Herrick
- Portrait of a Boy by Stephen Vincent Benet
- Robert Burns: On Capt. Lascelles:
- Look Now On That Adventurer Who Hath Paid by William Wordsworth
- Николай Рубцов – Зимняя песня
- Какая мама молодец
- Sonnet 35: No more be grieved at that which thou hast done by William Shakespeare
- Yes, It Was The Mountain Echo by William Wordsworth
- Sonnet XIII. Addressed To Haydon poem – John Keats poems
- In Imitation of Spenser : The Alley poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Harry Ploughman poem – Gerard Manley Hopkins poems
- Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady poem – Alexander Pope
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Смерть в Мессине
- Robert Burns: A Dream: Thoughts, words, and deeds, the Statute blames with reason; But surely Dreams were ne’er indicted Treason. On reading, in the public papers, the Laureate’s Ode, with the other parade of June 4th, 1786, the Author was no sooner dropt asleep, than he imagined himself transported to the Birth-day Levee: and, in his dreaming fancy, made the following Address:
- Ianthe by Walter Savage Landor
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
- The most noble bird, wife by Mukeshkumar Raval
- The Morning Breeze by Mousumi Guha Roy
- The ME inside by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- The Labour by Mousumi Guha Roy
- The Drum-Stick Tree by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- the branches of pine tree by Mousumi Guha Roy
- The Beyond by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Sting by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Snake Pit by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- Six-Word Poem by Monty Gilmer
- Rain all along by Mukeshkumar Raval
- Poem by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Poem by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Parody on a Haiku by Issa by Monty Gilmer
- No Regrets by Muralidharan Mudaliar
- My Mother by Claude McKay
- My impure god and I by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- My Dear Old Mother by Walter William Safar
- Mother by Shahida Latif
- Lost and Found by Muralidharan Mudaliar
More external links (open in a new tab):
Doska or the Board – write anything
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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.
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.