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 

• Set out by Mahak Raithatha S by Poetry In English
• Rita And The Rifle by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Psalm Three by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Psalm 9 by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Pride and Fury by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Postip by Manolo Arriola by Poetry In English
• Poema LX, El albergue by Mara Romero Torres by Poetry In English
• Poema II, “Pañuelos de La Alhambra” by Mara Romero Torres by Poetry In English
• Pequeña niña mía by Mara Romero Torres by Poetry In English
• Passport by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Pañuelos de La Alhambra by Mara Romero Torres by Poetry In English
• Ontological by Maggie Anderson by Poetry In English
• Only Iraq by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• Oh My Father, I am Yusif by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• October Journey by Margaret Walker by Poetry In English
• Nube by Manolo Arriola by Poetry In English
• No Matter What You Write by Mac McGovern by Poetry In English
• Neighing at the Slope by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• My Mother by Mahmoud Darwish by Poetry In English
• For My People by Margaret Walker by Poetry In English

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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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