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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• Address to the Toothache by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Address to the shade of Thomson by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Address to the Deil by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Address to Edinburgh by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Address to a Haggis by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Address spoken by Miss Fontenelle by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Adam Armour’s Prayer by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Winter Night by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Vision by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Tippling Ballad—When Princes and Prelates, etc. by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Prayer under the Pressure of Violent Anguish by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Prayer in the Prospect of Death by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Poet’s Welcome to his Love-Begotten Daughter by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A New Psalm for the Chapel of Kilmarnock by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Mother’s Lament for her Son’s Death by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Grace before Dinner by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• A Grace after Dinner by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• News, lassies, news (Song) by Robert Burns by Robert Burns
• Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet (Song) by Robert Burns by Robert Burns

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