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 

• From Afar by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Dream Girl by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Cruel Kindness by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Compensation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Birth Story by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• At The Last Watch by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• At The End Of The Day by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• And In Wonder And Amazement I Sing by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Along The Way by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• All These I Loved by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• A Hundred Years Hence by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• A Dream (English Translation) by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Essay on Liberty by Abraham Cowley by Abraham Cowley
• Paul’s Wife by Robert Frost by Robert Frost
• Pan with Us by Robert Frost by Robert Frost
• ‘Out, Out–‘ by Robert Frost by Robert Frost
• Our Singing Strength by Robert Frost by Robert Frost
• One Step Backward Taken by Robert Frost by Robert Frost
• Once By The Pacific by Robert Frost by Robert Frost
• On Looking Up By Chance At The Constellations by Robert Frost by Robert Frost

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