Do You Remember Once . . . Poem by Alan Seeger

Do You Remember Once . . .

Rating: 3.0


Do you remember once, in Paris of glad faces,
The night we wandered off under the third moon's rays
And, leaving far behind bright streets and busy places,
Stood where the Seine flowed down between its quiet quais?


The city's voice was hushed; the placid, lustrous waters
Mirrored the walls across where orange windows burned.
Out of the starry south provoking rumors brought us
Far promise of the spring already northward turned.


And breast drew near to breast, and round its soft desire
My arm uncertain stole and clung there unrepelled.
I thought that nevermore my heart would hover nigher
To the last flower of bliss that Nature's garden held.


There, in your beauty's sweet abandonment to pleasure,
The mute, half-open lips and tender, wondering eyes,
I saw embodied first smile back on me the treasure
Long sought across the seas and back of summer skies.


Dear face, when courted Death shall claim my limbs and find them
Laid in some desert place, alone or where the tides
Of war's tumultuous waves on the wet sands behind them
Leave rifts of gasping life when their red flood subsides,


Out of the past's remote delirious abysses
Shine forth once more as then you shone, -- beloved head,
Laid back in ecstasy between our blinding kisses,
Transfigured with the bliss of being so coveted.


And my sick arms will part, and though hot fever sear it,
My mouth will curve again with the old, tender flame.
And darkness will come down, still finding in my spirit
The dream of your brief love, and on my lips your name.

II


You loved me on that moonlit night long since.
You were my queen and I the charming prince
Elected from a world of mortal men.
You loved me once. . . . What pity was it, then,
You loved not Love. . . . Deep in the emerald west,
Like a returning caravel caressed
By breezes that load all the ambient airs
With clinging fragrance of the bales it bears
From harbors where the caravans come down,
I see over the roof-tops of the town
The new moon back again, but shall not see
The joy that once it had in store for me,
Nor know again the voice upon the stair,
The little studio in the candle-glare,
And all that makes in word and touch and glance
The bliss of the first nights of a romance
When will to love and be beloved casts out
The want to question or the will to doubt.
You loved me once. . . . Under the western seas
The pale moon settles and the Pleiades.
The firelight sinks; outside the night-winds moan --
The hour advances, and I sleep alone.



III


Farewell, dear heart, enough of vain despairing!
If I have erred I plead but one excuse --
The jewel were a lesser joy in wearing
That cost a lesser agony to lose.


I had not bid for beautifuller hours
Had I not found the door so near unsealed,
Nor hoped, had you not filled my arms with flowers,
For that one flower that bloomed too far afield.


If I have wept, it was because, forsaken,
I felt perhaps more poignantly than some
The blank eternity from which we waken
And all the blank eternity to come.


And I betrayed how sweet a thing and tender
(In the regret with which my lip was curled)
Seemed in its tragic, momentary splendor
My transit through the beauty of the world.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Kim Aouad 03 September 2016

I absolutely adore it I teared up this poem is by far one of my favorites on this site

4 3 Reply
Xana Mori 13 September 2016

very beautiful...lots of emotions after reading

3 2 Reply
Xana Mori 13 September 2016

very beautiful, lots of emotions after reading

3 2 Reply
Mountain Man 13 September 2016

Wow a very good poem there Alan....

2 1 Reply
Cesca 20 September 2021

Ooohhhh

1 0 Reply
Sumpter 20 September 2021

uwu

0 0
Adonica 15 December 2018

I discovered Alan Seeger earlier this year, and he's been my hero ever since. I truly admire everything about his life and him. This poem, this beauty, this masterpiece - - It only invigorates that admiration. Discovering him led me down a road of immense change, and inspiration. No matter how many years may go bye, I'll always treasure the honor of knowing him. Rest in peace, Alan.

1 1 Reply
Nur kow mal 08 August 2018

interested in writing and reading poem

0 0 Reply
Susan Williams 29 June 2017

And my sick arms will part, and though hot fever sear it, My mouth will curve again with the old, tender flame. And darkness will come down, still finding in my spirit The dream of your brief love, and on my lips your name. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I liked this segment- -the hope of love was so young and tender and alive. The next segments let us into the reality and I would rather had the fantasy. He was a soldier, he knew he walked side by side with doom, I'm just a woman who does not know she walks side by side with doom as well. He is so much more real and strong.

1 1 Reply
Kumarmani Mahakul 29 June 2017

It is a beautiful poem on love and glory with nice depiction. Thanks for sharing.

1 1 Reply
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Alan Seeger

Alan Seeger

New York City, New York
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