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:
- The Passing of Stumpy Shore by Mervyn John Webster
- Motionless Body
- Aunt Dorothys Lecture
- Maktoob
- On the Departure of Sir Walter Scott from Abbotsford by William Wordsworth
- Владимир Маяковский – Версаль
- From The Woolworth Tower by Sara Teasdale
- Robert Burns: I Love My Love In Secret:
- I like to let the word fly about by Murali Sivaramakrishnan
- Михаил Кузмин – Запел петух, таинственный предвестник
- The Young British Soldier by Rudyard Kipling
- Anthem For Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
- Наум Коржавин – Люди пашут каждый раз опять
- ah, happy crow by Raj Arumugam
- The Bayadere
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
- The Methodist by Thomas Chatterton
- The Death of Nicou by Thomas Chatterton
- The Copernican System by Thomas Chatterton
- The Advice by Thomas Chatterton
- Song from Aella by Thomas Chatterton
- Sly Dick by Thomas Chatterton
- Narva and Mored by Thomas Chatterton
- Heccar and Gaira by Thomas Chatterton
- February by Thomas Chatterton
- Eclogues by Thomas Chatterton
- Colin Instructed by Thomas Chatterton
- An Excelente Balade of Charitie: As Wroten bie the Gode Pri by Thomas Chatterton
- A New Song by Thomas Chatterton
- A Hymn for Christmas Day by Thomas Chatterton
- The Spring by Thomas Carew
- The Primrose by Thomas Carew
- Song. Murdering Beauty by Thomas Carew
- Song. Mediocrity in love rejected. by Thomas Carew
- Song. Good Counsel to a Young Maid by Thomas Carew
- Song: Eternity of Love Protested by Thomas Carew
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.