Poem by Alan Seeger

Thirty Sonnets. 24. Coucy

The rooks aclamor when one enters here
Startle the empty towers far overhead;
Through gaping walls the summer fields appear,
Green, tan, or, poppy-mingled, tinged with red.
The courts where revel rang deep grass and moss
Cover, and tangled vines have overgrown
The gate where banners blazoned with a cross
Rolled forth to toss round Tyre and Ascalon.
Decay consumes it. The old causes fade.
And fretting for the contest many a heart
Waits their Tyrtaeus to chant on the new.
Oh, pass him by who, in this haunted shade
Musing enthralled, has only this much art,
To love the things the birds and flowers love too.

1. Thirty Sonnets. 26. The Old Lowe House, Staten Island
2. Thirty Sonnets. 21. Virginibus Puerisque
3. Thirty Sonnets. 3. Sonnet 3. There was a youth around whose early way
4. Thirty Sonnets. 10. Sonnet 10. A splendor, flamelike, born to be pursued
5. Thirty Sonnets. 12. Sonnet 12. Like as a dryad, from her native bole

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