This timeless poem by Alan Seeger is one of the greatest war poems ever written. It elegantly yet starkly sums the inner longing and iron resolve of those who sacrifice everything so we may live free.
This Memorial Day, let us set aside analysis and politics and think only of those courageous, undaunted compatriots who gave their lives for us.
I Have a Rendezvous with Death
by Alan Seeger (June 22, 1888 - July 4, 1916)
I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade
When Spring comes round 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.