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. On a Theme in the Greek Anthology
2. Thirty Sonnets. 27. Oneata
3. Thirty Sonnets. 26. The Old Lowe House, Staten Island
4. Thirty Sonnets. 24. Coucy
5. Thirty Sonnets. 12. Sonnet 12. Like as a dryad, from her native bole

Print

1688 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version