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 

• Lines on the Fall of Fyers by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Lines on the Author’s Death by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Lines on Meeting with Lord Daer by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Lines on Fergusson, the Poet by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Lines Inscribed under Fergusson’s Portrait by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Lines Inscribed in a Lady’s Pocket Almanack by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Lament For Culloden by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• John Barleycorn: A Ballad by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• John Barleycorn by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• John Anderson by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Inscription to Miss Graham of Fintry by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Inscription to Jessie Lewars by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Inscription to Chloris by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• inscription on Mr. Syme’s crystal goblet by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Inscription for the Headstone of Fergusson the Poet by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Inscription at Friars’ Carse Hermitage by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Inscribed on a Work of Hannah More’s by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Impromptu on Carron Iron Works by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Impromptu Lines to Captain Riddell by Robert Burns by Robert Burns

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