Letters And Diary Of Alan Seeger

“I HAVE a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
When Spring comes back with rustling shade
And apple-blossoms fill the air
I have a rendezvous with Death
When Spring brings back blue days and fair”
The above unfortunately prophetic lines were written by the famed war poet Alan Seeger months before his death at the hands of German fire during the infamous slaughter of the battle of the Somme whilst serving in the French Foreign Legion. He saw a great deal of fighting in his two years with the French, indeed some of the worst of it as the Legion was posted many times to the most exposed parts of the lines. His diary entries are a strange mixture of his service under heavy fire with his common fellow poilus, which he faced so stoically despite having a heavy premonition of his own death, and his poetic insights into daily life.
Well-known and well-liked by his colleagues they set about collecting his notes and poems into this memorial volume to commemorate his achievements in the French army and his literary attainments.