John Adams High School - Clipper Yearbook (Ozone Park, NY)

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If I should die, think only this of meg That there's some corner ofa foreign field That is forever England. Alan Seeger, who wrote the famous poem, I Have a Rendezvous With Death, was born in New York City on June 22, 1888. When he was ten, his family moved to Mexico, where he spent the happiest days of his life. Seeger had always been a great book lover, and never contented unless he was reading some sort of book. However, when half of his college course at Harvard was completed, his soul changed from one of contentment to one of restlessness. It was this underlying cause that brought him to Paris in the Spring of 1914 and later to his death. Three weeks after war was declared between France and Ger- many, Alan joined the French Foreign Legion. Eight months later his regiment was sent to the front where it fought in most of the important battles. On July 1, 1916, an advance began, and on the American Inde- pendence day, the Legion was ordered to clear the village of Belloy- en-Sauterre, of the Germans. The soldiers charged down on the enemy and were met by a hail of bullets from six hidden machine guns. Most of the men fell. Among them was Seeger, mortally wounded. The French captured the town and marched on. When dawn came the next day, Alan Seeger had kept his word. And I to my pledged word am true, I shall not fail that rendezvous. Joyce Kilmer will be perhaps most remembered through his poem, Trees which brought him world renown. He was born in New Brunswick, N. J., on December 6, 1886 and was christened Alfred Joyce Kilmer. When Joyce became older he dropped the Alfred. Joyce attended preparatory school and after graduating became a student in Rutgers College, where he received his diploma in 1904. Two years later he was awarded an A. B. at Columbia. He once worked on the New York Times Book Review. It was while serving in the latter capacity that the bugles of America announced her entrance into the European conflict. Almost im- mediately Kilmer joined the Seventh New York National Guard. 287-1--IE ::n.nn'n'o.-n-4

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Later at his own request he was transferred to the volunteer regiment known as the Fighting 69th. Joyce went to the front. There he became a member of the American Intelligence Service. Many times he refused to go to an officer's training school, saying that he was' satisfied with being a sergeant. This proved to be his undoing, but it also proved to the world that a poet is not always the delicate, fanciful creature of vivid imagination. It was during the five day battle of the Argonne which started on july 28, 1918, that Kilmer met his death. He had headed a small scouting party which was trying to locate the exact position of a nest of enemy machine gunners, who were hindering the advance of the Americans. The entire party returned with the exception of its leader, Kilmer. His comrades found him on the ground, near a patch of woods. His eyes were gazing sightlessly -over a small ridge as if still scout- ing. A sniper's bullet had passed through the brain of the man who wrote those unforgettably beautiful lines: Farewell! Comrades true, born anew, peace to you! Your souls shall be where the heroes are And your memory shine like the morning-star These three poets answered the call in the conflict of man's fight for civilization. They might, perhaps, have been alive today, if it hadn't been for the Great War. Probably, they would have contributed many more fine poems to the world. We mourn their loss, but while we do, we are thankful for that bit which they have left us. It helps our lives to become richer by making us under- stand those feelings which we cannot, and they could, put into words. 1.1- -- -U-.vl- Rows, rows, straight lines of endless rows of soldier graves, The sky a dull gray roof above the busy earth, From out of that dull gray sky they come, and fall, Snowflakes, myriads of them traveling to kiss the ground below. Silently, softly, they fall on the rows of mounds, Silently, softly, like a blanket of down, they cover them. Claire McKay l 'l-IE il..II'I'l-i429