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 

• Dancing by Robert Hass by Poetry In English
• Children Are Like Water by Robert Lloyd Jaffe by Poetry In English
• Cascade by Robert Desnos by Poetry In English
• Between The Wars by Robert Hass by Poetry In English
• What We Leave Behind by Robert Saltzman by Poetry In English
• Water by Robert Lowell by Poetry In English
• Waking in the Blue by Robert Lowell by Poetry In English
• The Wound by Robert McNamara by Poetry In English
• The Withdrawal by Robert Lowell by Poetry In English
• The Ruins Of Time by Robert Lowell by Poetry In English
• The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket by Robert Lowell by Poetry In English
• The Drunken Fisherman by Robert Lowell by Poetry In English
• Skunk Hour by Robert Lowell by Poetry In English
• Promise Me Rain Retold by Roberto Cocina by Poetry In English
• San Francisco Night Windows by Robert Penn Warren by Poetry In English
• True Love by Robert Penn Warren by Poetry In English
• Tell Me a Story by Robert Penn Warren by Poetry In English
• Mortal Limit by Robert Penn Warren by Poetry In English
• Evening Hawk by Robert Penn Warren by Poetry In English
• A Way to Love God by Robert Penn Warren by Poetry In English

More external links (open in a new tab):

Russian Commerce Agency

Dealing Monster

Doska or the Board – write anything

Search engines:

Yandex – the best search engine for searches in Russian (and the best overall image search engine, in any language, anywhere)

Qwant – the best search engine for searches in French, German as well as Romance and Germanic languages.

Ecosia – a search engine that supposedly… plants trees

Duckduckgo – the real alternative and a search engine that actually works. Without much censorship or partisan politics.

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

 

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