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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• Groupie poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Glacier poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Ghouls parade poem – Brako Attafua poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Ghouls’ Parade poem – Brako Attafua poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Gazel poem – Yahya Kemal Beyatli poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Fantasy poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Drying Clothes poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Destiny poem – Zubair Ahmad Parray poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Bloodstains from Iraq poem – Yuyutsu Sharma poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Autumn poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Adieu poem – Yuvraj Johri poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• About Troy poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• A Faery’s Lament poem – Ysabelle Moriarty poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• A Visit to Yu’s Cave poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• A Knocker poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• A Ballad That We Do Not Perish poem – Zbigniew Herbert poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• One Night, The Fukien Robbers poem – Yang Wan-Li poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• O My Lord, Your Dwelling Places Are Lovely poem – Yehudah ha-Levi poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• Not Speaking Of The Way poem – Yosano Akiko poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File
• My Sweet Lad You Have Not Been Lost poem – Yiannis Ritsos poems | Poetry Monster by Anglo File

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