New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-12-16
4 VOICE FROM THE TRENCHES

4 VOICE FROM THE TRENCHES
POEMS BY Alan secssr Win an Inrcducl9so
lv william Archer Emo. ~ IlU Ia.
CHARLES sribuert Sons
How many voices Of the morrow TINS
war has stillcd, how many promises o.
achievement 10 has cut short IN the
Towering, how much of the best ana
the trucet Of a new generation 1t has
killed We shall never know. And on
ths other side Of the balance sheet VIC
can place only q few, very few, names
of those who, having found themselves
in danger and hardship and Devotion
and exaltation, found, with the re-
alization. the voice to proclaim their
new birth TO the world.
The resemblance between the tate
and fortune of Alan Seeger and Rupert
Brooke readily suggests itself. Both
realized themselves among tho up
beavals and horrors and uplifrngs OF
war: both, in finding their souls ana
voices. lost their lives. Both were oil
Ice je,,ues, seeking new meanings OF
life. insurgent against its conventions
and traditions. pursuing new colors OF
romance, new forms of beauty, new eN-
periences. And both, with the git Oh
EXPRESSION stirring within them, sought
the substance wherein to exercise the
gift. OF the two Alan Seeger was the
more untamablc, certainly the more
untamed, the more impatient, uncon-
trollable spirit.
But between these two young men
finding their souls at the cost OF their
lives there was this great distinctions
Brooke served his own country; Alan
Seegcr ranged himself under the pan
ners Of a nation not his own, but dear
TO him through all those subtle III
Auenccs and inheritances which ran
co.'s Coppee summed up so truly iohs
ago in the line, "Chacun Geu@ pays IL
sien ct puts la France
Seegcr did not enlist in the French
Foreign Legion to hight the war thst
was to end war. He offered his lie 10
serve France. That was his first i'm
pulse, rs II was the impulse Of so many
other Americans who have made this
war of other countries their own.
Wider visions came TO him later-oI
service 10 humanity, and, In the emu,
perhaps through progressive physical
Exhaustion, a fatalism Oriental almost
In the acquiescence Of its acceptance =,
A modern knight, modern flower OF
chivalry that Seeger was Wneh ne
offered his arm and his life 70 France
Not with Brooke should we range him.
but with Byron rushing to the ard oil
an emerging new Hellas, with inc
Fighting Veres and Sydney giving thelt
swords and their lives TO the Low Couh,
tries in the cause Of liberty. Ina'
Seeger felt that his enlistment had DC,
slowed upon him the accolaoe OF
knighthood he plainly expressed IN MS,
sonnet sequence to Sydney:
Sydney. IN whom the heydsy OF TO
nance
Came TO its precious and most perfect
flower,
whether you journeyed With victorious
Or brought sweet roundelsys to Steiias
I give myself some credit for the way
! have kept clean of what ensisVes anu
lowers,
Stunned the ideals OF our present day
And studied those that were esteemed
in yours;
For. turning from the mob that buys
Success
By sacrificing all Life's better part,
Down the free roads Of human happi-
ness
7 frolicked, poor Of purse, but light OF
heart,
And lived in strict devotion all along
To my three idols-Love and Arms and
Song.
One does not criticise the flower in
the bud. Suffice il 20 say that IN this
slender volume there are stanzas that
will live because they deserve 70 i've,
because their author, having found
himself. had his moments OF true inspi-
ration. There are verses here 70 when
youth viii turn with kindling eve and
responding heart throb. with the shud-
der of regeneration when once again
the nations shall stand face 10 race
with war for what they deem the hign-
est and truest and best. And that rs
all that can be asked of even the great
est poets.
william Archer's sympathetic intro
duction TO this slender sheaf, so mirac-
ulously recovered from the Belgian
printer 20 whose care Seeger intrusted
il when he started for the war. may be
Jeff 10 the reader II embodies brief
biographical sketch Of the young sol
dier-poct. made doubly worth our while
nv tho letters TO his mother and sister
which n contains. There IS so much
here that IS ouotablc. so pertlncntly
,uotahle 10 us Americans. that one