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:
- Степан Щипачев – Высота
- Summer poem – Alexander Pope
- Федор Сваровский – Погребение мехоса
- I Hoed and Trenched and Weeded poem – A. E. Housman
- Aix In Provence by Robert Browning
- Владимир Маяковский – Спросили раз меня: “Вы любите ли НЭП?”
- Низами Гянджеви – Мне ночь не в ночь, мне в ночь невмочь
- Anchor Song by Rudyard Kipling
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Ну вот – всё ладится, идет всё понемногу
- Sonnet CXXIV by William Shakespeare
- Feast of the Eyes
- Омар Хайям – Коль станешь твердым
- “`Roses crimson, roses white” poem – Alfred Austin
- Василий Лебедев-Кумач – Спортивный марш
- The Coastwise Lights by Rudyard Kipling
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
- Степан Щипачев – Потомкам
- Степан Щипачев – По дороге в совхоз
- Степан Щипачев – Опять тревожно, больно сердцу стало
- Степан Щипачев – Обращение к времени
- Степан Щипачев – Не громок, не бросок мой стих
- Степан Щипачев – Любовью дорожить умейте
- Степан Щипачев – Лил дождь осенний
- Степан Щипачев – Ладонь
- Степан Щипачев – Голос
- Степан Щипачев – День
- Степан Щипачев – Березка
- Степан Щипачев – Атака
- Стефан Малларме – Звенящий зимний день
- Стефан Малларме – Записка Уистлеру
- Стефан Малларме – Вздох
- Стефан Малларме – Весеннее обновление
- Стефан Малларме – В идоложертвенном ликующем костре
- Стефан Малларме – В альбом
- Стефан Малларме – Устав от горького бездействия и лени
- Стефан Малларме – Появление
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.