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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• A Channel Passage by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 V: The Soldier by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 IV: The Dead by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 III: The Dead by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 II: Safety by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• 1914 I: Peace by Rupert Brooke by Rupert Brooke
• When Day Is Done by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• When and Why by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Vocation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Untimely Leave by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Twelve O’Clock by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Threshold by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Wicked Postman by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Unheeded Pageant by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Source by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Sailor by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Recall by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Rainy Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Lotus by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Little Big Man by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore

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