Sonnet 10 I Have Sought Happiness And It Has Been Analysis

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The Volunteer Frenchman and His Poetry Alan Seeger, son of Charles Louis Seeger, was born in New York City on June 22, 1888. His father was a wealthy businessman, therefore Seeger had a wealthy upbringing allowing him to attend expensive boarding schools such as the Staten Island Academy and Horace Mann school in Manhattan up until he turned twelve, then his family moved to New Mexico. After some time, Seeger and his brother moved back to New York City to attend Hackley School (“Alan Seeger”). After graduation, Seeger attended Harvard University alongside T.S. Eliot. While at Harvard, Seeger edited the school newspaper and translated old works of writing. Eventually, though, he grew bored of his modern life and decided to move to France in …show more content…

This juxtaposition is much like how, through the most tumultuous times of his life, the moments where he was closest to death were the moments he was the most calm. This, again, can be seen in “I have a Rendezvous with Death” as Seeger continually repeats that Death and him have a predetermined meeting. Also in “Sonnet 10: I have Sought Happiness and it has Been”, Seeger uses words such as “Pleasure” and “Desire” to refer to his life in New York City where he felt he was more materialistic. The only abstract idea that Seeger does not capitalize in this poem is peace at the very end, because with this use of understatement he expresses how he found peace when he wasn’t searching for it and he wasn’t materialistic. Again this theme of war solving all of his issues is seen in his poetry. This is such a minute detail that can easily be missed, but when noticed creates a completely different and deeper meaning to the poem. This poem is so little known, but for Seeger’s use of understatement and control over words, it is by far the most well written from a technical