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 

• Number 1 by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• nonsense verse by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• no ambition for eternity by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Nature’s song for the children by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Nasrudin’s donkey eats poetry by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Mummy, mummy who invented school? by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Mum and children in the street by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Mr Anonymous, a life by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Moon poems by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• Moon, I hear you are moving away by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• minding love by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• message from the sun by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• may each find the peace within by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• M for Man, Money and Moon by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• lovers in nature by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• love growing by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• love by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• little teddy bear lost by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• little Sara’s sleep by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English
• life on the escalator by Raj Arumugam by Poetry In English

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Yahoo– yes, it’s still around, amazingly, miraculously, incredibly, but now it seems to be powered by Bing.

 

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