author
Alan Seeger
1888–1916
An American poet who turned his love of France into service in the French Foreign Legion, he is remembered for lyrical, idealistic verse shaped by the First World War. His best-known poem, I Have a Rendezvous with Death, has kept his name alive long after his death in battle at age twenty-eight.
1 Audiobook
Poems
by Alan Seeger
About the author
Born in New York City in 1888, Alan Seeger spent part of his childhood in Mexico and later studied at Harvard, where he was active in literary life. After college he lived for a time in New York and then moved to Paris, drawn to the city’s artistic culture and to France itself.
When World War I began, Seeger enlisted in the French Foreign Legion even though the United States had not yet entered the war. He continued writing poetry during his service, and his work became known for its romantic style, emotional clarity, and strong sense of honor, beauty, and fate.
Seeger was killed on July 4, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. His reputation rests especially on I Have a Rendezvous with Death and on the poems and letters published around and after his lifetime, which helped make him one of the most remembered American voices of the war.