I Have A Rendezvous With Death(Poem)

[gord97138]

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.

It may be he shall take my hand

And lead me into his dark land

And close my eyes and quench my breath-

It may be I shall pass him still.

I have a rendezvous with Death

On some scarred slope of battered hill,

When Spring comes round again this year

And the first meadow-flowers appear.

God knows ?twere better to be deep

Pillowed in silk and scented down,

Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep,

Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,

Where hushed awakenings are dear...

But I have a rendezvous with Death

At midnight in some flaming town,

When Spring trips north again this year,

And I to my pledged word am true,

I shall not fail that rendezvous.

-- I Have A Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger (killed in action, 1916)

1888–1916, American poet, b. New York City, grad. Harvard, 1910. During World War I he served in the French Foreign Legion and was killed in battle in 1916. He is famous for his war poem, “I Have a Rendezvous with Death.”

[KF Kelly]

Nice to see this poem posted here. Alan Seeger was also the uncle of the well-known American singer, Pete Seeger.

KF Kelly

[StAubyns]

The first time I went to the Somme battlefields was in 2001 on a leger holiday. On of the walks the guide, Vic Puik, stopped and read out this poem. Very emotional and never to be forgotten.

[Guest Paula in the Somme]

A plaque commemorates Alan Seeger in Belloy.

[robbie]

-- I Have A Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger (killed in action, 1916)

1888–1916, American poet, b. New York City, grad. Harvard, 1910. During World War I he served in the French Foreign Legion and was killed in battle in 1916. He is famous for his war poem, “I Have a Rendezvous with Death.”

Another literary talent cut down in his prime.

Robbie

[robbie]

More on WW1 poetry. Just found this anthology:

A Treasury of War Poetry

British and American Poems of the World War

1914–1917

FIRST SERIES

Edited with Introduction and Notes by

George Herbert Clarke

Anyone read it?

Robbie

[robbie]

Alan Seeger:

Among the French troops waiting to assault the German trenches on July 1 was an American named Alan Seeger. He had graduated from Harvard in 1910 and had spent two years in Greenwich Village before moving to Paris. Alan Seeger was a poet and he thrived in the bohemian atmosphere of Paris's Left Bank. When war broke, Seeger joined the French Foreign Legion in order to defend the country he loved so much. He did not abandon his poetry. One of his compositions during this period was an eerily prophetic poem entitled "Rendezvous with Death:"

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.

Seeger kept his appointment with death on July 1, 1916 - the first day of the Battle of the Somme. He was 28 years old.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/somme.htm

Robbie

[RodB]

I've been reading WWI poetry and what struck me was that while the other nations' poets wrote of the horror, Alan Seeger seems to have seen himeself as an oldfashioned warrior, over there to win a war. To the Americans out there - does that place him within an American poetry tradition ?

Anybody know more about his military service - what rank & unit within the Foreign Legion ? I understand he was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille Militaire... must have been a pretty good soldier.

cheers

Rod

[larneman]

For those interested in WW1 Poety there is another thread.

click here==>1914-1918 forum

Nice poem. Nice feelings.

Liam