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 

• How I Walked Alone in the Jungles of Heaven by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• How a Little Girl Sang by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• How a Little Girl Danced by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Honor Among Scamps by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Here’s to the Mice! by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Heart of God by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Genesis by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• General William Booth Enters into Heaven by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Galahad, Knight Who Perished by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Foreign Missions in Battle Array by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Factory Windows are Always Broken by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Euclid by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Epitaphs For Two Players by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Epilogue by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Eden in Winter by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Drying Their Wings by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Darling Daughter of Babylon by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Concerning Emperors by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay
• Caught in a Net by Vachel Lindsay by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay

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