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 

• Betrayal poem – Alice Notley by Poetry In English
• Before you knew you owned it poem – Alice Walker by Poetry In English
• Because We Never Practiced With The Escape Chamber poem – Alice Fulton by Poetry In English
• Ballad Of The Skeletons poem – Allen Ginsberg by Poetry In English
• About Face poem – Alice Fulton by Poetry In English
• A winning lot by Poetry In English
• 30th Birthday poem – Alice Notley by Poetry In English
• Why? by Alexander Pope
• Where Are You? by Alexander Pope
• Tell Me by Alexander Pope
• Teacher by Alexander Pope
• Sleep by Alexander Pope
• Intruder by Alexander Pope
• Inside/Outside The Window by Alexander Pope
• Why Feed The Early Signs Of Boredom? poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин
• Upon The Hills Of Georgia poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин
• Under The Blue Skies… poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин
• Under A Portrait Of Jukowsky poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин
• Under A Portrait Of Jukowsky poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин
• To My Friends poem – Alexander Pushkin by Александр Пушкин

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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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