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Poems by Alan Seeger

with an introduction by William Archer
Seeger, Alan (1886-1916)

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JUVENILIA 1914
  
AN ODE TO NATURAL BEAUTY
  
THE DESERTED GARDEN
  
THE TORTURE OF CUAUHTEMOC
  
THE NYMPHOLEPT
  
THE WANDERER
  
THE NEED TO LOVE
  
EL EXTRAVIADO
  
LA NUE
  
ALL THAT'S NOT LOVE ...
  
PARIS
  
THE SULTAN'S PALACE
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FRAGMENTS
 1. 
I
 2. 
II
 3. 
III
 4. 
IV
 1. 
SONNET I
 2. 
SONNET II
 3. 
SONNET III
 4. 
SONNET IV
 5. 
SONNET V
 6. 
SONNET VI
 7. 
SONNET VII
 8. 
SONNET VIII
 9. 
SONNET IX
 10. 
SONNET X
 11. 
SONNET XI
 12. 
SONNET XII
 13. 
SONNET XIII
 14. 
SONNET XIV
 15. 
SONNET XV
 16. 
SONNET XVI
  
KYRENAÏKOS
  
ANTINOUS
  
VIVIEN
  
I LOVED ...
  
VIRGINIBUS PUERISQUE ...
  
WITH A COPY OF SHAKESPEARE'S SONNETS ON LEAVING COLLEGE
  
WRITTEN IN A VOLUME OF THE COMTESSE DE NOAILLES
  
COUCY
  
TEZCOTZINCO
  
THE OLD LOWE HOUSE, STATEN ISLAND
  
ONEATA
  
ON THE CLIFFS, NEWPORT
  
TO ENGLAND AT THE OUTBREAK OF THE BALKAN WAR
  
AT THE TOMB OF NAPOLEON BEFORE THE ELECTIONS IN AMERICA—NOVEMBER, 1912
  
THE RENDEZVOUS
  
DO YOU REMEMBER ONCE ...
  
THE BAYADERE
  
EUDÆMON
  
BROCELIANDE
  
LYONESSE
  
TITHONUS
  
AN ODE TO ANTARES
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LAST POEMS 1916
  
THE AISNE (1914–15)
  
CHAMPAGNE, 1914–15
  
THE HOSTS
  
MAKTOOB
  
I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH ...
 1. 
SONNET I
 2. 
SONNET II
 3. 
SONNET III
 4. 
SONNET IV
 5. 
SONNET V
 6. 
SONNET VI
 7. 
SONNET VII
 8. 
SONNET VIII
 9. 
SONNET IX
 10. 
SONNET X
 11. 
SONNET XI
 12. 
SONNET XII
  
BELLINGLISE
  
LIEBESTOD
  
RESURGAM
  
A MESSAGE TO AMERICA
  
INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION OF A LONG POEM
  
ODE IN MEMORY OF THE AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS FALLEN FOR FRANCE

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81

SONNET XIV

It may be for the world of weeds and tares
And dearth in Nature of sweet Beauty's rose
That oft as Fortune from ten thousand shows
One from the train of Love's true courtiers
Straightway on him who gazes, unawares,
Deep wonder seizes and swift trembling grows,
Reft by that sight of purpose and repose,
Hardly its weight his fainting breast upbears.
Then on the soul from some ancestral place
Floods back remembrance of its heavenly birth,
When, in the light of that serener sphere,
It saw ideal beauty face to face
That through the forms of this our meaner Earth
Shines with a beam less steadfast and less clear.
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