Poem by Alan Seeger

Sonnet 10. I have sought Happiness, but it has been

I have sought Happiness, but it has been
A lovely rainbow, baffling all pursuit,
And tasted Pleasure, but it was a fruit
More fair of outward hue than sweet within.
Renouncing both, a flake in the ferment
Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil,
There only, chastened by fatigue and toil,
I knew what came the nearest to content.
For there at least my troubled flesh was free
From the gadfly Desire that plagued it so;
Discord and Strife were what I used to know,
Heartaches, deception, murderous jealousy;
By War transported far from all of these,
Amid the clash of arms I was at peace.

1. Broceliande
2. Thirty Sonnets. 26. The Old Lowe House, Staten Island
3. Thirty Sonnets. 13. Sonnet 13. I fancied, while you stood conversing there
4. Thirty Sonnets. 7. Sonnet 7. To me, a pilgrim on that journey bound
5. Sonnet 7. There have been times when I could storm and plead

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