Bare were the gardens where I used to stray;
Faded the flowers that one time satisfied."
Poems by Alan Seeger.
Then, not content, he sets up an altar of poetry and dedicates it to
Love and lights a fire of worship there, and leaves it not, nor night
nor day:
"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."
Poems by Alan Seeger.
If Love be not queen to him, the palace is cold and barren; the "altar
unset and the candle unlit"
THE SONG OF DEATH
Like Brooke, a victim of the Hun, so Seeger, also a victim of the
barbarian, seemed to feel the constant presence of Death, an unseen
guest at the Feast of Youth and Joy and Fame and Love. Perhaps the war
made these two imaginative poets think of Death sooner than Youth
usually gives him heed. But most men will think of Death when they are
face to face with the shadow day and night as were these
soldier-crusading poets; when they see him stalking in every trench, in
every wood, on every hill and road, and in every field and village. But
how bravely he spoke of Death!--
"Learn to drive fear, then, from your heart.
If you must perish, know, O man,
'Tis an inevitable part
Of the predestined plan."
Poems by Alan Seeger.
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