Poem by Alan Seeger

Sonnet 10. I have sought Happiness, but it has been

I have sought Happiness, but it has been
A lovely rainbow, baffling all pursuit,
And tasted Pleasure, but it was a fruit
More fair of outward hue than sweet within.
Renouncing both, a flake in the ferment
Of battling hosts that conquer or recoil,
There only, chastened by fatigue and toil,
I knew what came the nearest to content.
For there at least my troubled flesh was free
From the gadfly Desire that plagued it so;
Discord and Strife were what I used to know,
Heartaches, deception, murderous jealousy;
By War transported far from all of these,
Amid the clash of arms I was at peace.

1. Thirty Sonnets. 5. Sonnet 5. A tide of beauty with returning May
2. Thirty Sonnets. 13. Sonnet 13. I fancied, while you stood conversing there
3. Tithonus
4. Thirty Sonnets. 15. Sonnet 15. Above the ruin of God's holy place
5. Thirty Sonnets. 6. Sonnet 6. Give me the treble of thy horns and hoofs

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