Alan Seeger
Who is Alan Seeger
Alan Seeger (22 June 1888 – 4 July 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 musicians, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, and Mike Seeger. He is best known for the poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death", a favorite of President John F. Kennedy. A statue representing him is on the monument in the Place des États-Unis, Paris, honoring fallen Americans who volunteered for France during the war. Seeger is sometimes called the "American Rupert Brooke".
Early life
Seeger was born on June 22, 1888, in New York City. According to Alan's nephew, folk singer Pete Seeger, the Seeger ...
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Alan Seeger Poems
- All That's Not Love . .
All that's not love is the dearth of my days,
The leaves of the volume with rubric unwrit,
The temple in times without prayer, without praise,
The altar unset and the candle unlit.
...
- I Loved . .
I loved illustrious cities and the crowds
That eddy through their incandescent nights.
I loved remote horizons with far clouds
Girdled, and fringed about with snowy heights.
...
- Virginibus Puerisque . .
I care not that one listen if he lives
For aught but life's romance, nor puts above
All life's necessities the need to love,
Nor counts his greatest wealth what Beauty gives.
...
- Translations Ariosto. Orlando Furioso, Canto X, 91-99
Ruggiero, to amaze the British host,
And wake more wonder in their wondering ranks,
The bridle of his winged courser loosed,
And clapped his spurs into the creature's flanks;
...
- Fragment Iii
For there were nights . . . my love to him whose brow
Has glistened with the spoils of nights like those,
Home turning as a conqueror turns home,
What time green dawn down every street uprears
...
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Alan Seeger Quotes
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Comments about Alan Seeger
- Rtfireflyesq: 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.
alan seeger
- War_poets: 24 march 1915 the new york sun publishes an article by alan seeger ‘among so many hours in the soldier’s life that modern warfare makes monotonous and unromantic there come those too when the heart expands with accesses of enthusiasm'
- Vinayakkariwal: "and i to my pledged word am true,
i shall not fail that rendezvous." ~ alan seeger
- Orgetorix: alan seeger (22 june 1888 – 4 july 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…
- Relicsofislam: i have a rendezvous with death
by 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.
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