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 

• The Beginning by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• The Astronomer by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Religious Obsession — translation from Dharmamoha by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Poems On Time by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Poems On Man by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Poems On Love by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Poems On Life by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Poems On Beauty by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• One Day In Spring…. by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• On The Nature Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• My Friend, Come In These Rains — English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Lover’s Gifts LVI: The Evening Was Lonely by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Lord Of My Life by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Lamp Of Love by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Kinu Goala’s Alley – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• In The Dusky Path Of A Dream by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• In The Country – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• I Found A Few Old Letters by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• I Cast My Net Into The Sea by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore
• Gift Of The Great – English Translation by Rabindranath Tagore by Rabindranath Tagore

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