Downton Abbey: Reminder of Alan Seeger's "Rendezvous"

"Pillowed in silk and scented down..."

For those who caught the last episode of Downton Abbey, they witnessed the passing of one of the nicest characters on the show, William.  A footman turned soldier, William sustained unrecoverable injuries to his lungs during a battle. He was returned to Downton Abbey --not as a footman, but as one of Lord Grantham's own, and given a room main house and tended to by Lady Edith.

Alan Seeger, WWI

The surroundings in which William passes away, are the poshest he's ever been in. Lace pillows, soft cotton sheets, plush down comforters, flowers adorning his bed, his father and wife are near him.

I couldn't help but think of Alan Seeger's poem, Rendezvous. Seeger was a Harvard educated American poet who went to WWI and joined the French Foreign Legion.  On the field of Beloy-en-Santerre, he was shot in a fusillade of German machine gun fire in the Battle of the Somme.  He was twenty eight years old. Seeger was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Medaille Militaire posthumously.

Hats off to Julian Fellowes for giving William the send off many soldier desires, but some will never have.

Rendezvous  by Alan Seeger, WWI Poet & Soldier

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
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.

It 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.

Hear his nephew Pete Seeger read his uncle's poem: Rendezvous.