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.
A few random poems:
- Robert Burns: Birthday Ode For 31st December, 1787:
- Double Ballade Of Primitive Man poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Георгий Иванов – То, о чем искусство лжет
- Gem Immortality
- Анатолий Жигулин – Начало поэмы
- Иван Мятлев – Розы
- Long Distance II by Tony Harrison
- To Be Blind
- Hypatia by Stanley Wilkin
- An Untold Love by Rixa White
- Inscriptions Written with a Slate Pencil upon a Stone by William Wordsworth
- America by Walter William Safar
- Polyphemus poem – Alfred Austin
- In The Forest by Sarojini Naidu
- Shadow Overhead by Vaishnavi Prakash
External links
Bat’s Poetry Page – more poetry by Fledermaus
Talking Writing Monster’s Page –
Batty Writing – the bat’s idle chatter, thoughts, ideas and observations, all original, all fresh
Poems in English
- Indian Dancers by Sarojini Naidu
- Indian Dancer by Sarojini Naidu
- In The Forest by Sarojini Naidu
- In Salutation to the Eternal Peace by Sarojini Naidu
- In Praise Of Henna by Sarojini Naidu
- Humayun To Zobeida (From the Urdu) by Sarojini Naidu
- Harvest Hymn by Sarojini Naidu
- Ecstasy by Sarojini Naidu
- Damayante To Nala In The Hour Of Exile by Sarojini Naidu
- Cradle Song by Sarojini Naidu
- Coromandel Fishers by Sarojini Naidu
- Corn Grinders by Sarojini Naidu
- Autumn Song by Sarojini Naidu
- An Indian Love Song by Sarojini Naidu
- Alabaster by Sarojini Naidu
- A Rajput Love Song by Sarojini Naidu
- A Love Song from the North by Sarojini Naidu
- Wishes by Satish Verma
- WINGS ATTACHED by Satish Verma
- WHAT ENDING by Satish Verma
More external links (open in a new tab):
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.
Parallel Translations of Poetry
The Poetry Repository – an online library of poems, poetry, verse and poetic works
Alan Seeger (1888-1916) was an American war poet who fought and died in World War I during the Battle of the Somme, serving in the French Foreign Legion. Seeger was the brother of Charles Seeger, a noted American pacifist and musicologist and the uncle of folk musician, Pete Seeger.