This doesn’t mean that he wants to die, but quite the opposite. He even tries to imagine what his death will be like with a curiosity indicating that he does not disdain or fear it. By doing so, he seems to recognize that the world will continue to move forward even without him, nature will continue to blossom in a wonderful way despite the fact that he is destined to die cruelly on the battlefield. The soldier in question contemplates the unavoidable “rendezvous” he has with death, which will probably arrive in spring, as he says in the first stanza, juxtaposing the imminent end of his life to the rebirth brought by spring. Published posthumously in 1917, “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” is a moving wartime poem that describes a soldier’s coming, unavoidable death. Shortly after composing this poem, he was mortally wounded during the Battle of the Somme. He thought it was the right thing to do, since he was critical of his country’s hesitation to join the war effort (the United States didn’t get involved in the war until 1917). When the war began in 1914, Alan Seeger, who was leading a bohemian lifestyle in the Latin Quarter in Paris, felt compelled to volunteer to fight as a member of the Foreign Legion in the French Army. Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath,Īlan Seeger (22 June 1888 – 4 July 1916) – the uncle of folk musician Pete Seeger – was an American poet who wrote “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” while serving as a soldier during World War I.

When Spring brings back blue days and fair.

When Spring comes back with rustling shade Eliot & April “(see here) where there was a connection between spring and death, our friend Pat (e-Quips) left a comment in which she said: “ Eliot’s poem reminds me of a more convoluted version of Alan Seeger’s ” I Have a Rendezvous with Death”

I have a rendezvous with death poem