Poems

by Alan Seeger

An Excerpt from the book-

This book contains the undersigned, but all the more spontaneous and authentic,
biography of a very rare spirit. It contains the record of a short life,
into which was crowded far more of keen experience and high aspiration--of
the thrill of sense and the rapture of soul--than it is given to
most men, even of high vitality, to extract from a life of twice the length.
Alan Seeger had barely passed his twenty-eighth birthday, when,
charging up to the German trenches on the field of Belloy-en-Santerre,
his "escouade" of the Foreign Legion was caught in a deadly flurry
of machine-gun fire, and he fell, with most of his comrades,
on the blood-stained but reconquered soil. To his friends
the loss was grievous, to literature it was--we shall never know how great,
but assuredly not small. Yet this was a case, if ever there was one,
in which we may not only say "Nothing is here for tears,"
but may add to the well-worn phrase its less familiar sequel:

Nothing to wail
Or knock the breast, no weakness, no contempt,
Dispraise, or blame,--nothing but well and fair,
And what may quiet us in a death so noble.

Of all the poets who have died young, none has died so happily.
Without suggesting any parity of stature, one cannot but think
of the group of English poets who, about a hundred years ago,
were cut off in the flower of their age. Keats, coughing out his soul
by the Spanish Steps; Shelley's spirit of flame snuffed out
by a chance capful of wind from the hills of Carrara;
Byron, stung by a fever-gnat on the very threshold of his great
adventure--for all these we can feel nothing but poignant unrelieved regret.
Alan Seeger, on the other hand, we can very truly envy. Youth had given him
all that it had to give; and though he would fain have lived
on--though no one was ever less world-weary than he--yet in the plenitude
of his exultant strength, with eye undimmed and pulse unslackening,
he met the death he had voluntarily challenged, in the cause
of the land he loved, and in the moment of victory. Again and again,
both in prose and in verse, he had said that this seemed to him
a good death to die; and two years of unflinching endurance
of self-imposed hardship and danger had proved that he meant what he said.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

180 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Alan 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.

Reviews

[Byren Burdess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alan Seeger died fighting in WW1 at the age of 28. This free kindle edition of his poetry starts off with a collection of his letters wrote during the war. His almost naïve sense of wonder and love for life is often contagious and I enjoyed that throughout both his letters and poetry. Although, there's plenty melancholy to be enjoyed if you're an emo.

Considering I'm generally not the biggest fan of poetry or war, I feel like I'd happily re-read this one day. Surprisingly, JFK's favourite poem in here isn't even in my top list. Some of his sonnets were among my favourites, and a special shoutout to 'Maktoob'.

[Mike Kanner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seeger is one of the last of the old-school poets who wrote romantic and lyric verse which will make it difficult for some modern readers.

Although the book focuses on his pre-war poems and sonnets, his war poems are included at the end of the volume. His poems about his experiences in the trenches (and a poem about the 1912 American election) reflect the same lyricism that is evident in his nature poems. Unlike many of the 'war poets' he praises the experience which may be why he is not as popular when looking at the poets of the period such as Owen, Brooke or Graves.

[Jonathan]

American poet who died in WWI at age 28. He joined the French Foreign Legion in order to fight for the Allies before America entered the war. He is the uncle of the American folk singer Pete Seeger. He hoped to die a young death in a glorious battle. After being shot a few times by a machine gun, he cheered his comrades on. The book is a first edition and first printing.