A poem by Alan Seeger (1888-1916)
We first saw fire on the tragic slopes
Where the flood-tide of France’s early gain,
Big with wrecked promise and abandoned hopes,
Broke in a surf of blood along the Aisne.
The charge her heroes left us, we assumed,
What, dying, they reconquered, we preserved,
In the chill trenches, harried, shelled, entombed,
Winter came down on us, but no man swerved.
Winter came down on us. The low clouds, torn
In the stark branches of the riven pines,
Blurred the white rockets that from dusk till morn
Traced the wide curve of the close-grappling lines.
In rain, and fog that on the withered hill
Froze before dawn, the lurking foe drew down;
Or light snows fell that made forlorner still
The ravaged country and the ruined town;
Or the long clouds would end. Intensely fair,
The winter constellations blazing forth —
Perseus, the Twins, Orion, the Great Bear —
Gleamed on our bayonets pointing to the north.
And the lone sentinel would start and soar
On wings of strong emotion as he knew
That kinship with the stars that only War
Is great enough to lift man’s spirit to.
And ever down the curving front, aglow
With the pale rockets’ intermittent light,
He heard, like distant thunder, growl and grow
The rumble of far battles in the night, —
Rumors, reverberant, indistinct, remote,
Borne from red fields whose martial names have won
The power to thrill like a far trumpet-note, —
Vic, Vailly, Soupir, Hurtelise, Craonne . . .
Craonne, before thy cannon-swept plateau,
Where like sere leaves lay strewn September’s dead,
I found for all dear things I forfeited
A recompense I would not now forego.
For that high fellowship was ours then
With those who, championing another’s good,
More than dull Peace or its poor votaries could,
Taught us the dignity of being men.
There we drained deeper the deep cup of life,
And on sublimer summits came to learn,
After soft things, the terrible and stern,
After sweet Love, the majesty of Strife;
There where we faced under those frowning heights
The blast that maims, the hurricane that kills;
There where the watchlights on the winter hills
Flickered like balefire through inclement nights;
There where, firm links in the unyielding chain,
Where fell the long-planned blow and fell in vain —
Hearts worthy of the honor and the trial,
We helped to hold the lines along the Aisne.
A few random poems:
- I Dream of my Grandmother and Great-Grandmother by Maria Mazziotti Gillan
- Addressed To Haydon poem – John Keats poems
- Robert Burns: Jerusalem Tavern, Dumfries.: Inscription On A Goblet
- Final Soliloquy Of The Interior Paramour by Wallace Stevens
- Invitation To The Redbreast by William Cowper
- Off the Turnpike poem – Amy Lowell poems | Poems and Poetry
- Robert Burns: Lines On The Commemoration Of Rodney’s Victory:
- Sonnet On Sitting Down To Read King Lear Once Again poem – John Keats poems
- Story of a Drunk by Violet Uram
- Robert Burns: Had I A Cave:
- Prologue, spoken by Mr. Woods at Edinburgh by Robert Burns
- Sweetheart by M. T. Metutera
- Love Sonnet XXVI poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Tiny Warrior by Sharmagne Leland-St. John
- The Church An’ Happy Zunday by William Barnes
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
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Бедняк
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Бахчисарай
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Ель и берёза
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Е. А. Карлгоф
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Две прелестницы
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Два клада
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Довольно
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Дом в цветах
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Добрый совет
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Дева за клавесином
- Владимир Бенедиктов – День и две ночи
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Dahin
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Чёрный цвет
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Чувство
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Что ж делать
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Что шумишь
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Чесменские трофеи
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Человек
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Кудри
- Владимир Бенедиктов – Коса
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.