Page:Poems, Alan Seeger, 1916.djvu/74

 Speak of one then who had the lust to feel,

And, from the hues that far horizons take,

And cloud and sunset, drank the wild appeal,

Too deep to live for aught but life's sweet sake,

Whose only motive was the will to kneel

Where Beauty's purest benediction spake,

Who only coveted what grove and field

And sunshine and green Earth and tender arms could yield—

A nympholept, through pleasant days and drear

Seeking his faultless adolescent dream,

A pilgrim down the paths that disappear

In mist and rainbows on the world's extreme,

A helpless voyager who all too near

The mouth of Life's fair flower-bordered stream,

Clutched at Love's single respite in his need

More than the drowning swimmer clutches at a reed—

That coming one whose feet in other days

Shall bleed like mine for ever having, more

Than any purpose, felt the need to praise

And seek the angelic image to adore,

In love with Love, its wonderful, sweet ways

Counting what most makes life worth living for,

That so some relic may be his to see

How I loved these things too and they were dear to me.

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