As this biography relates, Seeger had a grander, idealized view of the glory of war and the dignity of a soldier’s death that he never lost. Seeger didn’t seem to feel that disillusion, even though he also saw first-hand the war’s devastation. England’s War Poets, by contrast, wrote startling verses of the the gassing, the trenches, the senselessness of it all, and their growing disillusion with war. For example, Seeger’s best-known poem, “I Have a Rendezvous with Death,” is somber yet shies away from dwelling on the senselessness of war instead it is wistful and beautiful, even sanitizing. This optimism –or at least lack of despair– is reflected in Seeger’s war poems. Perhaps because America was not involved in the first years of The Great War, the prevailing attitude there was more optimistic in general than in Europe. When he was finally sent into the fighting, in the Battle of the Somme, he was eager and enthusiastic, although it seemed he had a premonition that this would indeed be his Rendezvous with Death.Īuthor Michael Hill has written an excellent biography of this poet, which thoughtfully traces the paths and influences that led Seeger to seek out war far from his American home, years before his countrymen were compelled to fight, and how Seeger’s personal journey informed his poetry. During his two years of enlistment, although he suffered, as did all the soldiers, from the filthy conditions and constant deprivations of the front, he was more frustrated with the waiting, the changes in orders, and the disappointed anticipation when his unit was held back from the fighting. Seeger felt it was his duty to take a side feeling a grateful kinship to his adopted country, he joined the French Foreign Legion. Before he was able to find a publisher, however, war broke out.

There, Seeger felt he had finally found himself, producing a prolific body of poetry. After graduation, however, he felt adrift his poems found no audience and Seeger himself felt they were lacking in depth. Returning to the States, he eventually attended Harvard University, there solidifying his determination to become a poet. In fact, one of those sent the family to Mexico, where Seeger enjoyed some of his happiest memories and developed his dreamy romanticism, an unusual combination for someone with Seeger’s penchant for action and excitement. Alan Seeger was born in to a well-off, literate, and cultured family and had a happy childhood, despite some family financial setbacks.

The poem i have a rendezvous with death