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 

• Show It At The Beach by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• She’s My Ever Lovin’ Machine by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Scum Of The Earth by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Sarah Cynthia Slyvia Stout Would Not Take The Garbage Out by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Rosalie’s Good Eats Cafe by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Rock ‘N’ Roll Band by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Ring Of Grass by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Recipe For A Hippopotamus Sandwich by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Put Something In by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Polly In A Porny by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Point Of View by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Pathetic Way Of Getting Over Me by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• On The Way To The Bottom by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Never Bite A Married Woman On The Thigh by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• My Mind Keeps Movin’ by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Morgan’s Curse by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Melinda Mae by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Mama I’ll Sing One For You by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Makin’ It Natural by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein
• Lookin’ For Myself by Shel Silverstein by Shel Silverstein

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