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Sonnet XVI

By Alan Seeger

Topics: classic

Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest,     With single rites the common debt to pay?     On some green headland fronting to the East     Our fairest boy shall kneel at break of day.     Naked, uplifting in a laden tray     New milk and honey and sweet-tinctured wine,     Not without twigs of clustering apple-spray     To wreath a garland for Our Lady's shrine.     The morning planet poised above the sea     Shall drop sweet influence through her drowsing lid;     Dew-drenched, his delicate virginity     Shall scarce disturb the flowers he kneels amid,     That, waked so lightly, shall lift up their eyes,     Cushion his knees, and nod between his thighs.

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"Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest,..."

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Author:Alan Seeger

"Who shall invoke her, who shall be her priest,..." by Alan Seeger

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"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Alan Seeger

About Alan Seeger

Alan Seeger (1888–1916) was an American poet who fought in the French Foreign Legion during World War I. His poem "I Have a Rendezvous with Death" is one of the most famous war poems, and he was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme.

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