Poem by Alan Seeger

Sonnet 3. WHY should you be astonished that my heart

WHY should you be astonished that my heart,
Plunged for so long in darkness and in dearth,
Should be revived by you, and stir and start
As by warm April now, reviving Earth?
I am the field of undulating grass
And you the gentle perfumed breath of Spring,
And all my lyric being, when you pass,
Is bowed and filled with sudden murmuring.
I asked you nothing and expected less,
But, with that deep, impassioned tenderness
Of one approaching what he most adores,
I only wished to lose a little space
All thought of my own life, and in its place
To live and dream and have my joy in yours.

1. On a Theme in the Greek Anthology
2. Thirty Sonnets. 27. Oneata
3. Thirty Sonnets. 26. The Old Lowe House, Staten Island
4. Tithonus
5. Thirty Sonnets. 24. Coucy

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