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 

• Before Summer Rain by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Fire’s Reflection by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Black Cat by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Duino Elegies: The First Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Archaic Torso Of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Childhood by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Falling Stars by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Autumn Day by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• from The Tenth Elegy by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• For Hans Carossa by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Evening Love Song by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Evening by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Death by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Blank Joy by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Along The Sun-Drenched Roadside by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Again And Again, However We Know The Landscape Of Love by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• Adam by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• A Walk by Rainer Maria Rilke by Rainer Maria Rilke
• “Wonkavite…” by Roald Dahl by Roald Dahl
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