I Have a Rendezvous with Death
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. It may be he shall take my hand And lead me into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath-- It may be I shall pass him still. I have a rendezvous with Death On some scarred slope of battered hill, When Spring comes round again this year And the first meadow-flowers appear. God knows 'twere better to be deep Pillowed in silk and scented down, Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep, Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, Where hushed awakenings are dear ... But I've a rendezvous with Death At midnight in some flaming town, When Spring trips north again this year, And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous. |
War poetry, written from inspiration during the war. Thus it’s all sad, depressing, maybe bloody stuff too. War is super duper bad, and we should not war. “I have a rendezvous with Death” by Alan Seeger is a war poem, that’s kind of different than the rest. It doesn’t talk about depressing death stuff, but rather, the poet says that Death should be calmly accepted and even anticipated by everyone. Why fear Death? Rather respect him, because Death makes living a lot brighter and more appreciated.
A short elegy in iambic pentameter, “I Have a Rendezvous with Death” has three stanzas of six, eight, and ten lines that employ irregular rhyme. That
took quite a while counting the rhyme scheme of 'Abbcac ddafafgg ghgafahfaa'. Seeger’s idealism contributes to the tone of the poem, in which the poet does not shrink from his rendezvous with death but actually welcomes it. The first six lines of the poem, Seeger contrasts between life and death that is Spring, and spring will soon meet Death as well. Then he uses war landscapes when he says “scarred slope of battered hills”. He uses vivid imagery like “pillowed in silk” and “flaming town” to also describe how life is after Death. He uses an obvious personification throughout the whole poem, and uses line repetition for every stanza. It is ironical how he says that Death is not to be feared, but also should be feared. However, he has a desire to confront Death willingly remain true to his “pledged word”. His obligation with Death will “not fail”.
Making a poem is hard, is what I got from this. Especially when I want it to relate to the poem I have chosen already. I had no clue at all as to how I am supposed to start making a poem. So I used the main idea of Death being a personified being as the core. Then I went to the theme that says Death isn't necessarily bad. I was like, why not make Death be the narrator? I looked at Haruki's example work, and I saw how he made a story from his poem, and I thought poems aren't stories with a plot. I wanted the tone to be kind of sad and dejected, similar to the calming tone of Seeger's poem. Reflecting that the author is not particularly alarmed by his subject matter, in this case death, and suggests that his reader need not be either.