I Loved

Alan Seeger

I loved illustrious cities and the crowds

That eddy through their incandescent nights.

I loved remote horizons with far clouds

Girdled, and fringed about with snowy heights.

I loved fair women, their sweet, conscious ways

Of wearing among hands that covet and plead

The rose ablossom at the rainbow’s base

That bounds the world’s desire and all its need.

Nature I worshipped, whose fecundity

Embraces every vision the most fair,

Of perfect benediction. From a boy

I gloated on existence. Earth to me

Seemed all-sufficient and my sojourn there

One trembling opportunity for joy.