A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
I have sought Happiness, but it has been
A lovely rainbow, baffling all pursuit,
And tasted Pleasure, but it was a fruit
More fair of outward hue than sweet within.
Renouncing both, a flake in the ferment
Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil,
There only, chastened by fatigue and toil,
I knew what came the nearest to content.
For there at least my troubled flesh was free
From the gadfly Desire that plagued it so;
Discord and Strife were what I used to know,
Heartaches, deception, murderous jealousy;
By War transported far from all of these,
Amid the clash of arms I was at peace.

A few random poems:
- On a Fan of the Author’s Design poem – Alexander Pope poems | Poetry Monster
- Анатолий Жигулин – Лесные дороги
- Ballade Against The Jesuits poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Election Ballad at close of Contest for representing the Dumfries Burghs, 1790 by Robert Burns
- Falling Stars by Rainer Maria Rilke
- Composed Upon Westminster Bridge by William Wordsworth
- The Burnt Child by W. S. Merwin
- Between Games by Vasko Popa
- Жан де Лафонтен – Фортуна и Дитя
- A Conjuration To Electra by Robert Herrick
- Recessional (A Victorian Ode) by Rudyard Kipling
- Иннокентий Анненский – Леконт де Лиль. Пускай избитый зверь, влачася на цепочке
- Memories of West Street and Lepke by Robert Lowell
- Владимир Высоцкий – Здесь сидел ты, Валет
- Sonnet 10
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 War Films by Sir Henry Newbolt
- The Black Hawk War of the Artists by Vachel Lindsay
- Repression of War Experience by Siegfried Sassoon
- Epitaph On An Army of Mercenaries by A. E. Housman
- CIA Dope Calypso by Allen Ginsberg
- A Day on the Beach of War by Tony Stringfellow
- The Paint-Kings by Washington Allston
- Rosalie by Washington Allston
- On The Luxembourg Gallery by Washington Allston
- Eccentricity by Washington Allston
- Art by Washington Allston
- America To Great Britain by Washington Allston
- Year’s End by Weldon Kees
- The Upstairs Room by Weldon Kees
- The Smiles Of The Bathers by Weldon Kees
- The Furies by Weldon Kees
- The Doctor Will Return by Weldon Kees
- The Bell From Europe by Weldon Kees
- The Beach by Weldon Kees
- Round by Weldon Kees
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.