Alan Seeger...

Was an American poet who was born in 1888 and died on a WWI battlefield on July 4, 1916. Seeger was a Harvard educated elite, who became a bohemian who, as a bohemian might, joined the French Foreign Legion in 1914 in order to fight the "Hun." His brother Charles was the father of American folk singer Pete Seeger.

I always recite this, perhaps Seeger's most famous poem, to my U.S. History students, on or around Veteran's Day, formerly Armistice Day, commemorating the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918. It was one of John Kennedy's favorites:

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 maybe 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 words am true,
I shall not fail that rendezvous.