"Pete Seeger interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! Monday, September 4, 2006"
He tells Amy Goodman that he wrote President Kennedy that a favorite poem of his was written by Seeger's uncle during WWI. The uncle's name was Alan Seeger, and the poem Pete quotes on the video is called Rendezvous or "I Have a Rendezvous With Death."
Pete Seeger has quite a family heritage of having a way with words.
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.
t 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.
I found part of another poem written by Alan Seeger. The first paragraph caught my eye. It is as though he could be talking to our country today. It is called A Message to America.
A Message to America
You have the grit and the guts, I know; You are ready to answer blow for blow You are virile, combative, stubborn, hard, But your honor ends with your own back-yard; Each man intent on his private goal, You have no feeling for the whole; What singly none would tolerate You let unpunished hit the state, Unmindful that each man must share The stain he lets his country wear, And (what no traveller ignores) That her good name is often yours.
"Unmindful that each man must share The stain he lets his country wear"
Yes, our country's good name is ours.
The poem must have been written before 1916, as he was killed in actiono that year.
American Poet Alan Seeger <1888-1916> Killed in Action on July 4, 1916, whilst serving as a Foreign Legionnaire.
