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Alan SeegerI 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've 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.
-Alan Seeger (I Have a Rendezvous with Death) Alan Seeger. 1888-1916. American poet, born in New York City. Entered Harvard College in 1906, he edited the Harvard Monthly in his senior year. He chafed at Philistine restrictions and conventions and in 1912 moved to Paris, where he wrote and worked in the Latin Quarter. Upon the coming of war he soon enlisted in the Foreign Legion. On July 4, 1916, Seeger went over the top with his company at Belloy-en-Santerre. He was last seen alive, wounded, but cheering on his companions. The next morning he was found dead in a shell hole. The French Government awarded him the Croix de Guerre and Medaille Militaire. His Collected Poems were published in 1916. (Uncle of musician/singer Pete Seeger.)
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