Alan Seeger

Here you will find the Poem Sonnet XV of poet Alan Seeger

Sonnet XV

Above the ruin of God's holy place, 
Where man-forsaken lay the bleeding rood, 
Whose hands, when men had craved substantial food, 
Gave not, nor folded when they cried, Embrace, 
I saw exalted in the latter days 
Her whom west winds with natal foam bedewed, 
Wafted toward Cyprus, lily-breasted, nude, 
Standing with arms out-stretched and flower-like face. 
And, sick with all those centuries of tears 
Shed in the penance for factitious woe, 
Once more I saw the nations at her feet, 
For Love shone in their eyes, and in their ears 
Come unto me, Love beckoned them, for lo! 
The breast your lips abjured is still as sweet.