I Have a Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger

A young American soldier understands that he is likely to die in battle, and instead of fearing this fate, he views it as a romantic appointment — a "rendezvous" — that he feels compelled to honor. The poem shifts between the beauty of spring and the inevitability of death, creating a contrast that is both tender and heartbreaking. Written on the Western Front, it feels like a farewell letter from someone who was fully aware of what lay ahead.

The tone is calm and almost serene, which is precisely what makes it unsettling. Seeger writes with the calmness of someone who has come to terms with dying. There’s a real beauty in the language, drawing from Romantic and pastoral traditions, but it’s always at odds with the harsh reality of the Western Front. The overall effect is elegiac: mournful yet not despairing, brave without being boastful.

Alan Seeger was an American poet educated at Harvard, living in Paris when World War One began in 1914. Instead of heading back to the U.S., he joined the French Foreign Legion — the only option available for foreign volunteers at that time. He spent nearly two years on the Western Front, writing poetry along the way. "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" was penned in 1916, the same year he died during the Battle of the Somme on July 4th — which is also American Independence Day. The poem was published after his death and became one of the most popular poems of the war. President John F. Kennedy was said to have known it by heart and regarded it as a favorite. It represents an early stage of war poetry that was still influenced by Romantic ideals, before the harsh disillusionment expressed by poets like Wilfred Owen took over.