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Letters And Diary Of Alan Seeger
“I HAVE a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair”
The above unfortunately prophetic lines were written by the famed war poet Alan Seeger months before his death at the hands of German fire during the infamous slaughter of the battle of the Somme whilst serving in the French Foreign Legion. He saw a great deal of fighting in his two years with the French, indeed some of the worst of it as the Legion was posted many times to the most exposed parts of the lines. His diary entries are a strange mixture of his service under heavy fire with his common fellow poilus, which he faced so stoically despite having a heavy premonition of his own death, and his poetic insights into daily life.
Well-known and well-liked by his colleagues they set about collecting his notes and poems into this memorial volume to commemorate his achievements in the French army and his literary attainments.
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair”
The above unfortunately prophetic lines were written by the famed war poet Alan Seeger months before his death at the hands of German fire during the infamous slaughter of the battle of the Somme whilst serving in the French Foreign Legion. He saw a great deal of fighting in his two years with the French, indeed some of the worst of it as the Legion was posted many times to the most exposed parts of the lines. His diary entries are a strange mixture of his service under heavy fire with his common fellow poilus, which he faced so stoically despite having a heavy premonition of his own death, and his poetic insights into daily life.
Well-known and well-liked by his colleagues they set about collecting his notes and poems into this memorial volume to commemorate his achievements in the French army and his literary attainments.
- GenresWarWorld War I
233 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1917
5 people are currently reading
32 people want to read
About the author
Alan Seeger
61 books15 followersAlan Seeger was born in New York. Seeger entered Harvard in 1906 after attending several elite preparatory schools, including Hackley School. At Harvard, he edited and wrote for the Harvard Monthly.
After graduating in 1910, he moved to Greenwich Village for two years, where he wrote poetry and enjoyed the life of a young bohemian.
Having moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris to continue his seemingly itinerant intellectual lifestyle, on August 24, 1914, Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion so that he could fight for the Allies in World War I (the United States did not enter the war until 1917). He was killed in action at Belloy-en-Santerre, famously cheering on his fellow soldiers in a successful charge after being hit several times himself by machine gun fire. One of his more famous poems, I Have a Rendezvous with Death, was published posthumously. Indeed, a recurrent theme in both his poetic works and his personal writings prior to falling in battle was his desire for his life to end gloriously at an early age.
Seeger's poetry was not published until 1917, a year after his death.
After graduating in 1910, he moved to Greenwich Village for two years, where he wrote poetry and enjoyed the life of a young bohemian.
Having moved to the Latin Quarter of Paris to continue his seemingly itinerant intellectual lifestyle, on August 24, 1914, Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion so that he could fight for the Allies in World War I (the United States did not enter the war until 1917). He was killed in action at Belloy-en-Santerre, famously cheering on his fellow soldiers in a successful charge after being hit several times himself by machine gun fire. One of his more famous poems, I Have a Rendezvous with Death, was published posthumously. Indeed, a recurrent theme in both his poetic works and his personal writings prior to falling in battle was his desire for his life to end gloriously at an early age.
Seeger's poetry was not published until 1917, a year after his death.
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