Posted on Feb 2, 2021
The tragedy of Joyce Kilmer, the Catholic poet killed in World War I
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On February 2, 1913, American poet Joyce Kilmer wrote his famous poem "Trees" in Mahwah, New Jersey. He would be killed in action during WWI. From the article:
"The tragedy of Joyce Kilmer, the Catholic poet killed in World War I
Joyce Kilmer was killed by a German sniper’s bullet 100 years ago this summer, on July 30, 1918, during the Second Battle of the Marne in World War I. The celebrated writer is best known for his 1913 poem “Trees.”
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree
Literary critics, from Kilmer’s time to the present, fault the poem as being overly sentimental and romantic. Yet many readers, then and now, find the poem charming and see nothing wrong with being sentimental.
There is, however, much more to Joyce Kilmer’s story than this one well-known poem.
Born on Dec. 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, N.J., to parents Annie and Frederick Kilmer, he was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer. (His father was the inventor of Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder.)
Kilmer studied at Rutgers College Grammar School, where he was the editor of the school’s paper. He went on to Rutgers College and Columbia University, graduating in May 1908. He married Aline Murray in June, and they would eventually have five children. In the following years, Kilmer became a well-known poet, literary critic, journalist and editor. He started teaching Latin at Morristown High School in New Jersey and writing essays, poems and reviews for several publications including The Nation and The New York Times.
He and Aline moved to New York, where he held several jobs, including working for Funk and Wagnall’s defining words for The Standard Dictionary. In 1912, the Jesuit priest James Daly, a professor of English at Campion College in Prairie du Chien, Wis., wrote to Kilmer to discuss literature. The two began exchanging letters, and a friendship developed that intensified when Kilmer’s fourth child, baby Rose, was stricken with polio and lost the use of her limbs. His relationship with Father Daly led Kilmer and his wife to become Catholics in 1913, the same year Kilmer published “Trees.” Kilmer would write to Father Daly on Jan. 9, 1914:
I believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time. But I wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental—in fact I wanted Faith....
Well, every morning for months I stopped on my way to the office and prayed in this church for faith. When faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralysed daughter. Here lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny still feet know beautiful paths. You understand this and it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down.
Kilmer often visited Campion, where he also became friends with Claude Pernin, S.J. Father Pernin, who taught English at the school, was a brilliant lecturer who later became a pioneer in radio in Chicago in the 1920s. Pernin gave comments and criticisms to the manuscripts of many of Kilmer’s poems and essays. Kilmer wrote several books, including The Circus and Other Essays (1916); Main Street and Other Poems (1917); and Literature in the Making (1917). In 1917, he also published Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets, which was dedicated to Father Daly and included the poems of four Jesuits. In his time, Kilmer was compared to British contemporaries Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton. He was considered the leading American Catholic lecturer and poet of his time.
Kilmer was considered the leading American Catholic lecturer and poet of his time.
In April 1917, the United States entered World War I. Kilmer enlisted, joining New York City’s “Fighting 69th” infantry regiment: “I was Irish and Catholic and would go to France sooner.” The 69th was led by Major “Wild Bill” Donovan, and the chaplain was the Rev. Francis P. Duffy. Shortly before Kilmer left to go overseas, his daughter Rose died. In France, Kilmer was a dedicated and courageous soldier, often undertaking dangerous reconnaissance missions. A fellow soldier, Sergeant Major Ester, described Kilmer:
He would always be doing more than his orders called for, i.e., getting much nearer to the enemy’s positions than any officer would be inclined to send him. Night after night he would lie out in No Man’s Land, crawling through barbed wires, in an effort to locate enemy positions and enemy guns, and tearing his clothes to shreds.
The German sniper brought him down on one such mission, and he was buried in France. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre. Father Duffy’s heroic efforts in the war, such as going into battle to carry back the wounded, would lead him to become the most decorated cleric in the history of the United States Army. A statue of Father Duffy stands in Duffy Square at the north end of Times Square in Manhattan.
Almost 20 years after the poet’s death, Father Pernin received an inheritance that he donated to build the Joyce Kilmer Library at Campion High School (the college had closed in 1925). The library was dedicated in 1937 and contained a display of Kilmer’s correspondence with Father Daly.
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In
[, Kilmer was portrayed by Jeffrey Lynn in the film “The Fighting 69th,” starring James Cagney, with Pat O’Brien as Father Duffy. In the movie, Kilmer is seen autographing his book of poetry and then composing a poem as the troops march through the mud. The film depicts the German bombardment on March 7, 1918, at the Rouge Bouquet wood. Nineteen men from Kilmer’s unit die when a shell hits the roof of their dugout, which collapses, trapping the men inside. At their burial Kilmer reads his poem “Rouge Bouquet”:
In a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet
There is a new-made grave to-day,
Built by never a spade nor pick
Yet covered with earth ten metres thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime,
Never to laugh nor love again
Nor taste the Summertime.
For Death came flying through the air
And stopped his flight at the dugout stair,
Touched his prey and left them there,
Clay to clay.
He hid their bodies stealthily
In the soil of the land they fought to free
And fled away.
Now over the grave abrupt and clear
Three volleys ring;
And perhaps their brave young spirits hear
The bugle sing:
“Go to sleep!
Go to sleep!
Slumber well where the shell screamed and fell.
Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor,
You will not need them any more.
The poem goes on to reference the archangel Michael and three Irish saints, begging their aid from heaven.
Kilmer’s popularity is evidenced by the many things named after him, including eight schools (four of which are in New Jersey), an Army camp, several parks and roads and the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, which is 3,800 acres of virgin forest in North Carolina. A monument to him stands in Central Park.
Several creative geniuses survived the First World War: Ernest Hemingway, Teilhard de Chardin, Paul Tillich and Walt Disney, among others. These men and their contemporaries were often called the “Lost Generation.” But the Lost Generation also includes creative figures who died in the war, men like Kilmer and the composers Enrique Granados and George Butterworth.
What more would Kilmer have accomplished if he had lived? What if he had survived and studied the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon? They wrote of the horrors of war and broke the rules of poetry. Surely Kilmer’s poetry would have evolved. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby is about frivolous and careless people after the war. Might Kilmer have written a novel about people with purpose and vision in the wake of world war, ones who were not so lost?
Like Fitzgerald, Kilmer could have become a unique and influential literary voice in the Roaring Twenties and the Depression—and a specifically Catholic one. The American Catholic literary revival developed in the 1930s, calling for the creation of high quality, engaging, Catholic writing. Kilmer could have led the movement."
"The tragedy of Joyce Kilmer, the Catholic poet killed in World War I
Joyce Kilmer was killed by a German sniper’s bullet 100 years ago this summer, on July 30, 1918, during the Second Battle of the Marne in World War I. The celebrated writer is best known for his 1913 poem “Trees.”
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree
Literary critics, from Kilmer’s time to the present, fault the poem as being overly sentimental and romantic. Yet many readers, then and now, find the poem charming and see nothing wrong with being sentimental.
There is, however, much more to Joyce Kilmer’s story than this one well-known poem.
Born on Dec. 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, N.J., to parents Annie and Frederick Kilmer, he was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer. (His father was the inventor of Johnson & Johnson’s Baby Powder.)
Kilmer studied at Rutgers College Grammar School, where he was the editor of the school’s paper. He went on to Rutgers College and Columbia University, graduating in May 1908. He married Aline Murray in June, and they would eventually have five children. In the following years, Kilmer became a well-known poet, literary critic, journalist and editor. He started teaching Latin at Morristown High School in New Jersey and writing essays, poems and reviews for several publications including The Nation and The New York Times.
He and Aline moved to New York, where he held several jobs, including working for Funk and Wagnall’s defining words for The Standard Dictionary. In 1912, the Jesuit priest James Daly, a professor of English at Campion College in Prairie du Chien, Wis., wrote to Kilmer to discuss literature. The two began exchanging letters, and a friendship developed that intensified when Kilmer’s fourth child, baby Rose, was stricken with polio and lost the use of her limbs. His relationship with Father Daly led Kilmer and his wife to become Catholics in 1913, the same year Kilmer published “Trees.” Kilmer would write to Father Daly on Jan. 9, 1914:
I believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time. But I wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental—in fact I wanted Faith....
Well, every morning for months I stopped on my way to the office and prayed in this church for faith. When faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralysed daughter. Here lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny still feet know beautiful paths. You understand this and it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down.
Kilmer often visited Campion, where he also became friends with Claude Pernin, S.J. Father Pernin, who taught English at the school, was a brilliant lecturer who later became a pioneer in radio in Chicago in the 1920s. Pernin gave comments and criticisms to the manuscripts of many of Kilmer’s poems and essays. Kilmer wrote several books, including The Circus and Other Essays (1916); Main Street and Other Poems (1917); and Literature in the Making (1917). In 1917, he also published Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets, which was dedicated to Father Daly and included the poems of four Jesuits. In his time, Kilmer was compared to British contemporaries Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton. He was considered the leading American Catholic lecturer and poet of his time.
Kilmer was considered the leading American Catholic lecturer and poet of his time.
In April 1917, the United States entered World War I. Kilmer enlisted, joining New York City’s “Fighting 69th” infantry regiment: “I was Irish and Catholic and would go to France sooner.” The 69th was led by Major “Wild Bill” Donovan, and the chaplain was the Rev. Francis P. Duffy. Shortly before Kilmer left to go overseas, his daughter Rose died. In France, Kilmer was a dedicated and courageous soldier, often undertaking dangerous reconnaissance missions. A fellow soldier, Sergeant Major Ester, described Kilmer:
He would always be doing more than his orders called for, i.e., getting much nearer to the enemy’s positions than any officer would be inclined to send him. Night after night he would lie out in No Man’s Land, crawling through barbed wires, in an effort to locate enemy positions and enemy guns, and tearing his clothes to shreds.
The German sniper brought him down on one such mission, and he was buried in France. He was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre. Father Duffy’s heroic efforts in the war, such as going into battle to carry back the wounded, would lead him to become the most decorated cleric in the history of the United States Army. A statue of Father Duffy stands in Duffy Square at the north end of Times Square in Manhattan.
Almost 20 years after the poet’s death, Father Pernin received an inheritance that he donated to build the Joyce Kilmer Library at Campion High School (the college had closed in 1925). The library was dedicated in 1937 and contained a display of Kilmer’s correspondence with Father Daly.
Advertisement
In
[, Kilmer was portrayed by Jeffrey Lynn in the film “The Fighting 69th,” starring James Cagney, with Pat O’Brien as Father Duffy. In the movie, Kilmer is seen autographing his book of poetry and then composing a poem as the troops march through the mud. The film depicts the German bombardment on March 7, 1918, at the Rouge Bouquet wood. Nineteen men from Kilmer’s unit die when a shell hits the roof of their dugout, which collapses, trapping the men inside. At their burial Kilmer reads his poem “Rouge Bouquet”:
In a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet
There is a new-made grave to-day,
Built by never a spade nor pick
Yet covered with earth ten metres thick.
There lie many fighting men,
Dead in their youthful prime,
Never to laugh nor love again
Nor taste the Summertime.
For Death came flying through the air
And stopped his flight at the dugout stair,
Touched his prey and left them there,
Clay to clay.
He hid their bodies stealthily
In the soil of the land they fought to free
And fled away.
Now over the grave abrupt and clear
Three volleys ring;
And perhaps their brave young spirits hear
The bugle sing:
“Go to sleep!
Go to sleep!
Slumber well where the shell screamed and fell.
Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor,
You will not need them any more.
The poem goes on to reference the archangel Michael and three Irish saints, begging their aid from heaven.
Kilmer’s popularity is evidenced by the many things named after him, including eight schools (four of which are in New Jersey), an Army camp, several parks and roads and the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest, which is 3,800 acres of virgin forest in North Carolina. A monument to him stands in Central Park.
Several creative geniuses survived the First World War: Ernest Hemingway, Teilhard de Chardin, Paul Tillich and Walt Disney, among others. These men and their contemporaries were often called the “Lost Generation.” But the Lost Generation also includes creative figures who died in the war, men like Kilmer and the composers Enrique Granados and George Butterworth.
What more would Kilmer have accomplished if he had lived? What if he had survived and studied the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon? They wrote of the horrors of war and broke the rules of poetry. Surely Kilmer’s poetry would have evolved. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic The Great Gatsby is about frivolous and careless people after the war. Might Kilmer have written a novel about people with purpose and vision in the wake of world war, ones who were not so lost?
Like Fitzgerald, Kilmer could have become a unique and influential literary voice in the Roaring Twenties and the Depression—and a specifically Catholic one. The American Catholic literary revival developed in the 1930s, calling for the creation of high quality, engaging, Catholic writing. Kilmer could have led the movement."
The tragedy of Joyce Kilmer, the Catholic poet killed in World War I
Posted from americamagazine.org
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Joyce Kilmer - American Catholic History
Every student learns the poem "Trees" in school. But now Tom and Noëlle Crowe tell us the story of its author Joyce Kilmer Catholic convert who wrote that an...
Thank you my friend SGT (Join to see) for making us aware that on February 2, 1913, American poet Joyce Kilmer wrote his famous poem "Trees" in Mahwah, New Jersey.
Joyce Kilmer - American Catholic History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBLiy_GyMh0
Images:
1. Joyce Kilmer poem - Prayer of a Soldier in France
2. Joyce Kilmer's Columbia University yearbook photograph, c. 1908
3. Aline Kilmer with their children - Kenton, Michael, Christopher and Deborah [daughter Rose died in 1917) picture taken about 1920
Background from {[https://www.poemhunter.com/joyce-kilmer/biography/]}
BiographyKilmer was born on December 6, 1886 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the fourth and youngest child of Annie Ellen Kilburn (1849–1932) and Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer (1851–1934), a physician and analytical chemist employed by the Johnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company's baby powder. Joyce was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and the Rev. Dr. Elisha Brooks Joyce (1857–1926), the rector of Christ Church, the oldest Episcopal parish in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family were parishioners. Rector Joyce, who served the parish from 1883 to 1916, baptised the young Kilmer. Kilmer's birthplace in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family lived from 1886 to 1892, is still standing, and houses a small museum to Kilmer, as well as a few Middlesex County government offices.
Kilmer entered the Rutgers College Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School) in 1895 at the age of 8. During his years at the Grammar School, he....
"...won the Lane prize in public speaking and was editor-in-chief of the Argo, the school paper. He loved the classics, although he had considerable difficulty with Greek. In his last year at Rutgers, he won the first Lane Classical Prize, a free scholarship for the academic course at Rutgers College, and one hundred dollars in money. Despite his difficulties with mathematics and Greek, he stood at the head of his class in preparatory school."
After graduating from the Rutgers College Grammar School in 1904, he continued his education at Rutgers College from 1904 to 1906. At Rutgers, Kilmer was associate editor of the Targum, the campus newspaper and a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Unable to complete the rigorous mathematics requirement in the curriculum at Rutgers, facing a repeat of his sophomore year and under pressure from his mother, Kilmer transferred to Columbia College of Columbia University in New York City.
At Columbia, Kilmer was vice-president of the Philolexian Society, associate editor of Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and was a member of the Debating Union. He completed his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree and was graduated from Columbia on May 23, 1908. Shortly after graduation, on June 9, 1908, he married Aline Murray (1888–1941), a fellow poet to whom he had been engaged since his sophomore year at Rutgers. The Kilmers had five children: Kenton Sinclair Kilmer (1909–1995), Michael Barry Kilmer (1916–1927), Deborah ("Sister Michael") Clanton Kilmer (1914–1999) who was a Catholic nun at the Saint Benedict’s Monastery, Rose Kilburn Kilmer (1912–1917), and Christopher Kilmer (1917–1984).
Within a few days after the United States declared war on Germany and entered the first World War in April 1917, Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard. In August, Kilmer was initially assigned as a statistician with the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment (better known as the "Fighting 69th" and later redesignated the 165th Infantry Regiment), of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division, and quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer and often recommended for such posts during the course of the war, Kilmer refused stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment.
In September, before Kilmer was deployed, the Kilmer family was met with both the contrary emotions of tragedy and rejoicing. The Kilmer's daughter Rose had died, and twelve days later, their son Christopher was born. Kilmer sailed to Europe with his regiment on October 31, 1917, arriving in France two weeks later. Before his departure, Kilmer had contracted with publishers to write a book about the war, deciding upon the title Here and There with the Fighting Sixty-Ninth. Kilmer wrote home, stating "I have not written anything in prose or verse since I got here - except statistics - but I've stored up a lot of memories to turn into copy when I get a chance." Unfortunately, Kilmer never was to write such a book. During his time in Europe, Kilmer did write prose sketches and poetry, most notably the poem "Rouge Bouquet", which was written after the First Battalion of the 42nd Division, which had been occupying the Rouge Bouquet forest northeast of the French village of Baccarat, which at the time was a quiet sector of the front—was struck by a heavy artillery bombardment on the afternoon of March 12, 1918 that buried 21 men of the unit, of which 14 remained entombed.
Kilmer sought more hazardous duty and was transferred to the Regimental Intelligence Section, in April 1918. He wrote to his wife, Aline that, "Now I'm doing work I love - and work you may be proud of. None of the drudgery of soldiering, but a double share of glory and thrills." According to Hillis:
"Kilmer's companions wrote: "He was worshipped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in No Man's Land.” This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death."
During the Second Battle of Marne, there was heavy fighting throughout the last days of July 1918, and on July 30, 1918, Kilmer volunteered to accompany Major William "Wild Bill" Donovan when Donovan's First Battalion was sent to lead the day's attack.
During the course of the day, Kilmer led a scouting party to find the position of a German machine gun. When his comrades found him, some time later, they thought at first that he was peering over the edge of a little hill, where he had crawled for a better view. When he did not answer their call, they ran to him and found him dead. According to Father Duffy: “A bullet had pierced his brain. His body was carried in and buried by the side of Ames. God rest his dear and gallant soul.” Kilmer died, likely immediately, from a sniper's bullet to the head near Muercy Farm, beside the Oureq River near the village of Seringes, in France, on July 30, 1918 at the age of 31. For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) by the French Republic.
Kilmer was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France. Although Kilmer is buried in France in an American military cemetery, a cenotaph is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A memorial service was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny Espinosa SSG Stephen Rogerson SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see)Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant SPC Woody Bullard TSgt David L. SMSgt David A Asbury MSgt Paul Connors SPC Michael Terrell
Joyce Kilmer - American Catholic History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBLiy_GyMh0
Images:
1. Joyce Kilmer poem - Prayer of a Soldier in France
2. Joyce Kilmer's Columbia University yearbook photograph, c. 1908
3. Aline Kilmer with their children - Kenton, Michael, Christopher and Deborah [daughter Rose died in 1917) picture taken about 1920
Background from {[https://www.poemhunter.com/joyce-kilmer/biography/]}
BiographyKilmer was born on December 6, 1886 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the fourth and youngest child of Annie Ellen Kilburn (1849–1932) and Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer (1851–1934), a physician and analytical chemist employed by the Johnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company's baby powder. Joyce was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and the Rev. Dr. Elisha Brooks Joyce (1857–1926), the rector of Christ Church, the oldest Episcopal parish in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family were parishioners. Rector Joyce, who served the parish from 1883 to 1916, baptised the young Kilmer. Kilmer's birthplace in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family lived from 1886 to 1892, is still standing, and houses a small museum to Kilmer, as well as a few Middlesex County government offices.
Kilmer entered the Rutgers College Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School) in 1895 at the age of 8. During his years at the Grammar School, he....
"...won the Lane prize in public speaking and was editor-in-chief of the Argo, the school paper. He loved the classics, although he had considerable difficulty with Greek. In his last year at Rutgers, he won the first Lane Classical Prize, a free scholarship for the academic course at Rutgers College, and one hundred dollars in money. Despite his difficulties with mathematics and Greek, he stood at the head of his class in preparatory school."
After graduating from the Rutgers College Grammar School in 1904, he continued his education at Rutgers College from 1904 to 1906. At Rutgers, Kilmer was associate editor of the Targum, the campus newspaper and a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity. Unable to complete the rigorous mathematics requirement in the curriculum at Rutgers, facing a repeat of his sophomore year and under pressure from his mother, Kilmer transferred to Columbia College of Columbia University in New York City.
At Columbia, Kilmer was vice-president of the Philolexian Society, associate editor of Columbia Spectator, the campus newspaper, and was a member of the Debating Union. He completed his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree and was graduated from Columbia on May 23, 1908. Shortly after graduation, on June 9, 1908, he married Aline Murray (1888–1941), a fellow poet to whom he had been engaged since his sophomore year at Rutgers. The Kilmers had five children: Kenton Sinclair Kilmer (1909–1995), Michael Barry Kilmer (1916–1927), Deborah ("Sister Michael") Clanton Kilmer (1914–1999) who was a Catholic nun at the Saint Benedict’s Monastery, Rose Kilburn Kilmer (1912–1917), and Christopher Kilmer (1917–1984).
Within a few days after the United States declared war on Germany and entered the first World War in April 1917, Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard. In August, Kilmer was initially assigned as a statistician with the U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment (better known as the "Fighting 69th" and later redesignated the 165th Infantry Regiment), of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division, and quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer and often recommended for such posts during the course of the war, Kilmer refused stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment.
In September, before Kilmer was deployed, the Kilmer family was met with both the contrary emotions of tragedy and rejoicing. The Kilmer's daughter Rose had died, and twelve days later, their son Christopher was born. Kilmer sailed to Europe with his regiment on October 31, 1917, arriving in France two weeks later. Before his departure, Kilmer had contracted with publishers to write a book about the war, deciding upon the title Here and There with the Fighting Sixty-Ninth. Kilmer wrote home, stating "I have not written anything in prose or verse since I got here - except statistics - but I've stored up a lot of memories to turn into copy when I get a chance." Unfortunately, Kilmer never was to write such a book. During his time in Europe, Kilmer did write prose sketches and poetry, most notably the poem "Rouge Bouquet", which was written after the First Battalion of the 42nd Division, which had been occupying the Rouge Bouquet forest northeast of the French village of Baccarat, which at the time was a quiet sector of the front—was struck by a heavy artillery bombardment on the afternoon of March 12, 1918 that buried 21 men of the unit, of which 14 remained entombed.
Kilmer sought more hazardous duty and was transferred to the Regimental Intelligence Section, in April 1918. He wrote to his wife, Aline that, "Now I'm doing work I love - and work you may be proud of. None of the drudgery of soldiering, but a double share of glory and thrills." According to Hillis:
"Kilmer's companions wrote: "He was worshipped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in No Man's Land.” This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death."
During the Second Battle of Marne, there was heavy fighting throughout the last days of July 1918, and on July 30, 1918, Kilmer volunteered to accompany Major William "Wild Bill" Donovan when Donovan's First Battalion was sent to lead the day's attack.
During the course of the day, Kilmer led a scouting party to find the position of a German machine gun. When his comrades found him, some time later, they thought at first that he was peering over the edge of a little hill, where he had crawled for a better view. When he did not answer their call, they ran to him and found him dead. According to Father Duffy: “A bullet had pierced his brain. His body was carried in and buried by the side of Ames. God rest his dear and gallant soul.” Kilmer died, likely immediately, from a sniper's bullet to the head near Muercy Farm, beside the Oureq River near the village of Seringes, in France, on July 30, 1918 at the age of 31. For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre (Cross of War) by the French Republic.
Kilmer was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France. Although Kilmer is buried in France in an American military cemetery, a cenotaph is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A memorial service was held at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan."
FYI COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D GySgt Thomas Vick SGT Denny Espinosa SSG Stephen Rogerson SPC Matthew Lamb LTC (Join to see)Maj Bill Smith, Ph.D. MAJ Dale E. Wilson, Ph.D. PO1 William "Chip" Nagel PO2 (Join to see) SSG Franklin Briant SPC Woody Bullard TSgt David L. SMSgt David A Asbury MSgt Paul Connors SPC Michael Terrell
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LTC Stephen F.
Joyce Kilmer: Poet, Patriot & Knight (Lecture)
This public lecture by Dr. Amy Fahey, professor at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, was recorded July 30, 2018 at the Knights of Columbus Museum as part ...
Joyce Kilmer: Poet, Patriot & Knight (Lecture)
This public lecture by Dr. Amy Fahey, professor at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, was recorded July 30, 2018 at the Knights of Columbus Museum as part of its WWI lecture series.
Many know Joyce Kilmer as author of the poem, “Trees.” Few may know of his life as a father, husband and soldier. On the centenary of Kilmer’s death from a sniper’s bullet during World War I, Dr. Amy Fahey will offer a long overdue reexamination of Kilmer’s life and literary contributions. Kilmer, an active Knight of Columbus, penned simple verse that chronicled the challenges and triumphs of everyday Americans, whose influence on culture deserve to be known better. Dr. Fahey teaches literature and writing at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire and lectures frequently about modern Catholic writers.
Representatives of the 69th Infantry Regiment (United States), of which Sergeant Kilmer was a member, also will be present to discuss the history of the "Fighting 69th" and Kilmer's legacy in their military unit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hPhMD1fZI0
Images:
1. Joyce Kilmer poem 'Trees'
2. Annie Kilmer holding photograph of her son Joyce Kilmer.
3. Joyce Kilmer's daughter Deborah Kilmer - Sister Michael in the Order of St Benedichtine.
4. Fred Kilmer father of Joyce Kilmer
Biographies
1. .poetryfoundation.org/poets/joyce-kilmer
2. Poems from poemhunter.com/joyce-kilmer/biography
1. Background from {[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/joyce-kilmer]}
Joyce Kilmer 1886–1918
Journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1886. Known for poetry that celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, he was killed after enlisting in the United States Army during World War I. Kilmer was awarded by the French the prestigious Croix de Guerre (War Cross) for his bravery, and a section of National Forest in North Carolina is named after him.
After graduating from Rutgers College and Columbia University, Kilmer served as the literary editor for the religious newspaper The Churchman, and later, was on staff at the New York Times. Best known for his poem “Trees,” published in 1914, Kilmer enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1917 when the United States entered World War I. As a family man, he was not required to join the services. Instead, he requested—and received—a transfer to the infantry and was deployed to Europe. At the time of deployment, he was widely regarded as the leading Catholic American poet of his generation.
Once in Europe, Kilmer quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant and served mostly as an intelligence officer, collecting data and information from the enemy’s front line. On July 30, 1918, he joined in the battle of Ourcq and was killed by a sniper’s bullet.
His strong religious faith and dedication to the natural beauty of the world influences much of Kilmer’s work. “Trees” is unique for its personification of the tree in the poem, and became most popular after his death—in the 1940s and 1950s—even being put to music.
In 1938, the federal government purchased 3,800 acres of old growth forest in North Carolina to stop extensive logging. The tract of forest was dedicated to the memory and service of Kilmer. His name has also been given to many streets and schools across the country as well as a park in the Bronx.
2. Popular Poems
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
The House With Nobody In It
Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.
I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.
This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.
If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.
Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.
But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.
So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.
Stars
(For the Rev. James J. Daly, S. J.)
Bright stars, yellow stars, flashing through the air,
Are you errant strands of Lady Mary's hair?
. As she slits the cloudy veil and bends down through,
Do you fall across her cheeks and over heaven too?
Gay stars, little stars, you are little eyes,
Eyes of baby angels playing in the skies.
Now and then a winged child turns his merry face
Down toward the spinning world -- what a funny place!
Jesus Christ came from the Cross (Christ receive my soul!)
In each perfect hand and foot there was a bloody hole.
Four great iron spikes there were, red and never dry,
Michael plucked them from the Cross and set them in the sky.
Christ's Troop, Mary's Guard, God's own men,
Draw your swords and strike at Hell and strike again.
Every steel-born spark that flies where God's battles are,
Flashes past the face of God, and is a star.
Ballade Of My Lady's Beauty
Squire Adam had two wives, they say,
Two wives had he, for his delight,
He kissed and clypt them all the day
And clypt and kissed them all the night.
Now Eve like ocean foam was white
And Lilith roses dipped in wine,
But though they were a goodly sight
No lady is so fair as mine.
To Venus some folk tribute pay
And Queen of Beauty she is hight,
And Sainte Marie the world doth sway
In cerule napery bedight.
My wonderment these twain invite,
Their comeliness it is divine,
And yet I say in their despite,
No lady is so fair as mine.
Dame Helen caused a grievous fray,
For love of her brave men did fight,
The eyes of her made sages fey
And put their hearts in woeful plight.
To her no rhymes will I indite,
For her no garlands will I twine,
Though she be made of flowers and light
No lady is so fair as mine.
L'Envoi
Prince Eros, Lord of lovely might,
Who on Olympus dost recline,
Do I not tell the truth aright?
No lady is so fair as mine.
...
Prayer Of A Soldier In France
1 My shoulders ache beneath my pack
2 (Lie easier, Cross, upon His back).
3 I march with feet that burn and smart
4 (Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).
5 Men shout at me who may not speak
6 (They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).
7 I may not lift a hand to clear
8 My eyes of salty drops that sear.
9 (Then shall my fickle soul forget
10 Thy agony of Bloody Sweat?)
11 My rifle hand is stiff and numb
12 (From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).
13 Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
14 Than all the hosts of land and sea.
15 So let me render back again
16 This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.
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This public lecture by Dr. Amy Fahey, professor at Thomas More College of Liberal Arts, was recorded July 30, 2018 at the Knights of Columbus Museum as part of its WWI lecture series.
Many know Joyce Kilmer as author of the poem, “Trees.” Few may know of his life as a father, husband and soldier. On the centenary of Kilmer’s death from a sniper’s bullet during World War I, Dr. Amy Fahey will offer a long overdue reexamination of Kilmer’s life and literary contributions. Kilmer, an active Knight of Columbus, penned simple verse that chronicled the challenges and triumphs of everyday Americans, whose influence on culture deserve to be known better. Dr. Fahey teaches literature and writing at the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts in Merrimack, New Hampshire and lectures frequently about modern Catholic writers.
Representatives of the 69th Infantry Regiment (United States), of which Sergeant Kilmer was a member, also will be present to discuss the history of the "Fighting 69th" and Kilmer's legacy in their military unit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hPhMD1fZI0
Images:
1. Joyce Kilmer poem 'Trees'
2. Annie Kilmer holding photograph of her son Joyce Kilmer.
3. Joyce Kilmer's daughter Deborah Kilmer - Sister Michael in the Order of St Benedichtine.
4. Fred Kilmer father of Joyce Kilmer
Biographies
1. .poetryfoundation.org/poets/joyce-kilmer
2. Poems from poemhunter.com/joyce-kilmer/biography
1. Background from {[https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/joyce-kilmer]}
Joyce Kilmer 1886–1918
Journalist and poet Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey in 1886. Known for poetry that celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, he was killed after enlisting in the United States Army during World War I. Kilmer was awarded by the French the prestigious Croix de Guerre (War Cross) for his bravery, and a section of National Forest in North Carolina is named after him.
After graduating from Rutgers College and Columbia University, Kilmer served as the literary editor for the religious newspaper The Churchman, and later, was on staff at the New York Times. Best known for his poem “Trees,” published in 1914, Kilmer enlisted in the New York National Guard in 1917 when the United States entered World War I. As a family man, he was not required to join the services. Instead, he requested—and received—a transfer to the infantry and was deployed to Europe. At the time of deployment, he was widely regarded as the leading Catholic American poet of his generation.
Once in Europe, Kilmer quickly rose to the rank of Sergeant and served mostly as an intelligence officer, collecting data and information from the enemy’s front line. On July 30, 1918, he joined in the battle of Ourcq and was killed by a sniper’s bullet.
His strong religious faith and dedication to the natural beauty of the world influences much of Kilmer’s work. “Trees” is unique for its personification of the tree in the poem, and became most popular after his death—in the 1940s and 1950s—even being put to music.
In 1938, the federal government purchased 3,800 acres of old growth forest in North Carolina to stop extensive logging. The tract of forest was dedicated to the memory and service of Kilmer. His name has also been given to many streets and schools across the country as well as a park in the Bronx.
2. Popular Poems
Trees
I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
The House With Nobody In It
Whenever I walk to Suffern along the Erie track
I go by a poor old farmhouse with its shingles broken and black.
I suppose I've passed it a hundred times, but I always stop for a minute
And look at the house, the tragic house, the house with nobody in it.
I never have seen a haunted house, but I hear there are such things;
That they hold the talk of spirits, their mirth and sorrowings.
I know this house isn't haunted, and I wish it were, I do;
For it wouldn't be so lonely if it had a ghost or two.
This house on the road to Suffern needs a dozen panes of glass,
And somebody ought to weed the walk and take a scythe to the grass.
It needs new paint and shingles, and the vines should be trimmed and tied;
But what it needs the most of all is some people living inside.
If I had a lot of money and all my debts were paid
I'd put a gang of men to work with brush and saw and spade.
I'd buy that place and fix it up the way it used to be
And I'd find some people who wanted a home and give it to them free.
Now, a new house standing empty, with staring window and door,
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
But there's nothing mournful about it; it cannot be sad and lone
For the lack of something within it that it has never known.
But a house that has done what a house should do,
a house that has sheltered life,
That has put its loving wooden arms around a man and his wife,
A house that has echoed a baby's laugh and held up his stumbling feet,
Is the saddest sight, when it's left alone, that ever your eyes could meet.
So whenever I go to Suffern along the Erie track
I never go by the empty house without stopping and looking back,
Yet it hurts me to look at the crumbling roof and the shutters fallen apart,
For I can't help thinking the poor old house is a house with a broken heart.
Stars
(For the Rev. James J. Daly, S. J.)
Bright stars, yellow stars, flashing through the air,
Are you errant strands of Lady Mary's hair?
. As she slits the cloudy veil and bends down through,
Do you fall across her cheeks and over heaven too?
Gay stars, little stars, you are little eyes,
Eyes of baby angels playing in the skies.
Now and then a winged child turns his merry face
Down toward the spinning world -- what a funny place!
Jesus Christ came from the Cross (Christ receive my soul!)
In each perfect hand and foot there was a bloody hole.
Four great iron spikes there were, red and never dry,
Michael plucked them from the Cross and set them in the sky.
Christ's Troop, Mary's Guard, God's own men,
Draw your swords and strike at Hell and strike again.
Every steel-born spark that flies where God's battles are,
Flashes past the face of God, and is a star.
Ballade Of My Lady's Beauty
Squire Adam had two wives, they say,
Two wives had he, for his delight,
He kissed and clypt them all the day
And clypt and kissed them all the night.
Now Eve like ocean foam was white
And Lilith roses dipped in wine,
But though they were a goodly sight
No lady is so fair as mine.
To Venus some folk tribute pay
And Queen of Beauty she is hight,
And Sainte Marie the world doth sway
In cerule napery bedight.
My wonderment these twain invite,
Their comeliness it is divine,
And yet I say in their despite,
No lady is so fair as mine.
Dame Helen caused a grievous fray,
For love of her brave men did fight,
The eyes of her made sages fey
And put their hearts in woeful plight.
To her no rhymes will I indite,
For her no garlands will I twine,
Though she be made of flowers and light
No lady is so fair as mine.
L'Envoi
Prince Eros, Lord of lovely might,
Who on Olympus dost recline,
Do I not tell the truth aright?
No lady is so fair as mine.
...
Prayer Of A Soldier In France
1 My shoulders ache beneath my pack
2 (Lie easier, Cross, upon His back).
3 I march with feet that burn and smart
4 (Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart).
5 Men shout at me who may not speak
6 (They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek).
7 I may not lift a hand to clear
8 My eyes of salty drops that sear.
9 (Then shall my fickle soul forget
10 Thy agony of Bloody Sweat?)
11 My rifle hand is stiff and numb
12 (From Thy pierced palm red rivers come).
13 Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me
14 Than all the hosts of land and sea.
15 So let me render back again
16 This millionth of Thy gift. Amen.
FYI Sgt John H. SGM Bill FrazerCSM (Join to see)SSG Jeffrey LeakeSSG Paul HeadleeSGM Major StroupeCPL Michael PeckSSG Jeff Furgerson]Sgt (Join to see)PO1 Steve Ditto SPC Michael Terrell CPL Douglas ChryslerSP5 Geoffrey Vannerson LTC John Shaw MSgt Paul Connors SPC Matthew Lamb GySgt John Hudson SPC(P) (Join to see) SSG Robert WebsterSFC (Join to see)
(3)
(0)
LTC Stephen F.
The First World War and Religious Poetry
This talks looks at religious poetry in WWI. Rudyard Kipling's "Gethsemane" and Joyce Kilmer's "Prayer of a Soldier in France" are analysed.
The First World War and Religious Poetry
This talks looks at religious poetry in WWI. Rudyard Kipling's "Gethsemane" and Joyce Kilmer's "Prayer of a Soldier in France" are analysed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QABSSfdck0U
Images:
1. Joyce Kilmer Poem Stars
2. Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, as a member of the 165th Infantry Regiment, United States Army, May, 1918.
3. Tree-Planting Ceremony, September, 1955 - my cousins Robert and Ann participated in planting a tree in memory of their grandfather Joyce Kilmer during the dedication of the Ford Plant in Mahwah, NJ.
Background from {[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Joyce_Kilmer]}
Joyce Kilmer
Joyce Kilmer
Born Alfred Joyce Kilmer on December 6, 1886 at New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.
Died July 30, 1918 (aged 31) near Seringes-et-esles, Marne, France
Cause of death Killed in action
Occupation Poet, journalist, editor, lecturer, soldier
Alma mater Columbia University (A.B. 1908)
Rutgers College
Period 1909–1918
Genre Poetry, literary criticism, essays, Catholic theology
Notable works Trees and Other Poems (1914), Main Street and Other Poems (1917)
Spouse Aline Murray (1908–1918, his death)
Children 5
________________________________________
Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his Roman Catholic religious faith, Kilmer was also a journalist, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. At the time of his deployment to Europe during World War I, Kilmer was considered the leading American Roman Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, whom critics often compared to British contemporaries G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) and Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953).[1]:p.27[2][3] He enlisted in the New York National Guard and was deployed to France with the 69th Infantry Regiment (the famous "Fighting 69th") in 1917. He was killed by a sniper's bullet at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31. He was married to Aline Murray, also an accomplished poet and author, with whom he had five children.
While most of his works are largely unknown today, a select few of his poems remain popular and are published frequently in anthologies. Several critics—including both Kilmer's contemporaries and modern scholars—have dismissed Kilmer's work as being too simple and overly sentimental, and suggested that his style was far too traditional, even archaic.[4] Many writers, including notably Ogden Nash, have parodied Kilmer's work and style—as attested by the many imitations of "Trees".
Biography
Early years and education: 1886–1908
Kilmer was born December 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, New Jersey,[5] the fourth and youngest child,[note 1] of Annie Ellen Kilburn (1849–1932), a minor writer and composer,[4][6] and Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer (1851–1934), a physician and analytical chemist employed by the Johnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company's baby powder.[7][8][9] He was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after two priests at Christ Church in New Brunswick: Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and the Rev. Dr. Elisha Brooks Joyce (1857–1926), the rector. Christ Church is the oldest Episcopal parish in New Brunswick and the Kilmer family were parishioners.[10] Rector Joyce, who served the parish from 1883 to 1916, baptised the young Kilmer,[11] who remained an Episcopalian until his 1913 conversion to Catholicism. Kilmer's birthplace in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family lived from 1886 to 1892, is still standing, and houses a small museum to Kilmer, as well as a few Middlesex County government offices.[12]
Kilmer entered Rutgers College Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School) in 1895 at the age of 8. During his years at the Grammar School, Kilmer was editor-in-chief of the school's paper, the Argo, and loved the classics but had difficulty with Greek. He won the first Lane Classical Prize, for oratory, and obtained a scholarship to Rutgers College which he would attend the following year. Despite his difficulties with Greek and mathematics, he stood at the head of his class in preparatory school.[1]:p.9
After graduating from Rutgers College Grammar School in 1904, he continued his education at Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) from 1904 to 1906. At Rutgers, Kilmer was associate editor of the Targum, the campus newspaper, and a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.[13] However, he was unable to complete the curriculum's rigorous mathematics requirement and was asked to repeat his sophomore year. Under pressure from his mother, Kilmer transferred to Columbia University in New York City.[1]:p.10
At Columbia, Kilmer was vice-president of the Philolexian Society (a literary society), associate editor of Columbia Spectator (the campus newspaper), and member of the Debating Union. He completed his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree and graduated from Columbia on May 23, 1908.[1]:p.11 Shortly after graduation, on June 9, 1908, he married Aline Murray (1888–1941), a fellow poet to whom he had been engaged since his sophomore year at Rutgers.[1]:p.11[14] The Kilmers had five children: Kenton Sinclair Kilmer (1909–1995); Rose Kilburn Kilmer (1912–1917); Deborah ("Sister Michael") Clanton Kilmer (1914–1999) who was a Catholic nun at Saint Benedict Monastery; Michael Barry Kilmer (1916–1927); and Christopher Kilmer (1917–1984).[7]
Years of writing and faith: 1909–1917
In the autumn of 1908, Kilmer was employed teaching Latin at Morristown High School in Morristown, New Jersey.[4] At this time, he began to submit essays to Red Cross Notes (including his first published piece, an essay on the "Psychology of Advertising") and his early poems to literary periodicals. Kilmer also wrote book reviews for The Literary Digest, Town & Country, The Nation, and The New York Times. By June 1909, Kilmer had abandoned any aspirations to continue teaching and relocated to New York City, where he focused solely on developing a career as a writer.[1]:p.13
From 1909 to 1912, Kilmer was employed by Funk and Wagnalls, which was preparing an edition of The Standard Dictionary that would be published in 1912.[4] According to Hillis, Kilmer's job "was to define ordinary words assigned to him at five cents for each word defined. This was a job at which one would ordinarily earn ten to twelve dollars a week, but Kilmer attacked the task with such vigor and speed that it was soon thought wisest to put him on a regular salary."[1]:p.14
In 1911, Kilmer's first book of verse was published, entitled Summer of Love. Kilmer would later write that "...some of the poems in it, those inspired by genuine love, are not things of which to be ashamed, and you, understanding, would not be offended by the others."[1]:p.18
In 1912, Kilmer became a special writer for the New York Times Review of Books and the New York Times Sunday Magazine and was often engaged in lecturing.[4] He moved to Mahwah, New Jersey, where he resided until his service and death in World War I. By this time he had become established as a published poet and as a popular lecturer. According to Robert Holliday, Kilmer "frequently neglected to make any preparation for his speeches, not even choosing a subject until the beginning of the dinner which was to culminate in a specimen of his oratory. His constant research for the dictionary, and, later on, for his New York Times articles, must have given him a store of knowledge at his fingertips to be produced at a moment's notice for these emergencies."[1]:p.21[15]
When the Kilmers' daughter Rose (1912–1917) was stricken with poliomyelitis (also known as infantile paralysis) shortly after birth,[4] they turned to their religious faith for comfort. A series of correspondence between Kilmer and Father James J. Daly led the Kilmers to convert to Roman Catholicism, and they were received in the church in 1913. In one of these letters Kilmer writes that he "believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time," and he "wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental – in fact I wanted Faith." Kilmer would stop "every morning for months" on his way "to the office and prayed for faith," claiming that when "faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter. Her lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny feet know beautiful paths. You understand this and it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down."[16][17]
With the publication of "Trees" in the magazine Poetry in August 1913, Kilmer gained immense popularity as a poet across the United States. He had established himself as a successful lecturer—particularly one seeking to reach a Catholic audience. His close friend and editor Robert Holliday wrote that it "is not an unsupported assertion to say that he was in his time and place the laureate of the Catholic Church."[15] Trees and Other Poems (1914) was published the following year. This collection also introduced the popular poem "The House With Nobody In It". Over the next few years, Kilmer was prolific in his output, managing an intense schedule of lectures, publishing a large number of essays and literary criticism, and writing poetry. In 1915 he became poetry editor of Current Literature and contributing editor of Warner's Library of the World's Best Literature. In 1916 and 1917, before the American entry into World War I, Kilmer would publish four books: The Circus and Other Essays (1916), a series of interviews with literary personages entitled Literature in the Making (1917), Main Street and Other Poems (1917), and Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets (1917).[4]
War years: 1917–1918
In April 1917, a few days after the United States entered World War I, Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard. In August, Kilmer was assigned as a statistician with the 165th Infantry Regiment (better known as the re-designated "Fighting 69th", U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment), of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division, and quickly rose to the rank of sergeant. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer and often recommended for such posts during the course of the war, Kilmer refused, stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment.[1]:p.35
Shortly before his deployment to Europe, the Kilmers' daughter Rose had died, and twelve days later, their son Christopher was born.[1]:p.32 Before his departure, Kilmer had contracted with publishers to write a book about the war, deciding upon the title Here and There with the Fighting Sixty-Ninth. The regiment arrived in France in November 1917, and Kilmer wrote to his wife that he had not written "anything in prose or verse since I got here—except statistics—but I've stored up a lot of memories to turn into copy when I get a chance."[18] Kilmer did not write such a book; however, toward the end of the year, he did find time to write prose sketches and poetry. The most notable of his poems during this period was "Rouge Bouquet" (1918) which commemorated the deaths of two dozen members of his regiment in a German artillery barrage on American trench positions in the Rouge Bouquet forest north-east of the French village of Baccarat. At the time, this was a relatively quiet sector of the front, but the first battalion was struck by a German heavy artillery bombardment on the afternoon of March 7, 1918 that buried 21 men of the unit, killing 19 (of which 14 remained entombed).[19][20][21]:p.350
Kilmer sought more hazardous duty and was transferred to the military intelligence section of his regiment, in April 1918. In a letter to his wife, Aline, he remarked: "Now I'm doing work I love – and work you may be proud of. None of the drudgery of soldiering, but a double share of glory and thrills."[1]:p.36 According to Hillis, Kilmer's fellow soldiers had accorded him much respect for his battlefield demeanour—"He was worshipped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in no man's land. This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death."[1]:p.36
Death and burial
During the Second Battle of Marne there was heavy fighting throughout the last days of July 1918. On July 30, 1918, Kilmer volunteered to accompany Major "Wild Bill" Donovan (later, in World War II, the founder of the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency) when Donovan's battalion (1–165th Infantry) was sent to lead the day's attack.
During the course of the day, Kilmer led a scouting party to find the position of a German machine gun. When his comrades found him, some time later, they thought at first that he was peering over the edge of a little hill, where he had crawled for a better view. When he did not answer their call, they ran to him and found him dead. According to Father Francis P. Duffy: “A bullet had pierced his brain. His body was carried in and buried by the side of Ames. God rest his dear and gallant soul.”[21]:p.193 A sniper's bullet likely killed him immediately. According to military records, Kilmer died on the battlefield near Muercy Farm, beside the Ourcq River near the village of Seringes-et-Nesles, in France, on July 30, 1918 at the age of 31.[22] For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) by the French Republic.[23]
Kilmer was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France just across the road and stream from the farm where he was killed.[24] A cenotaph erected to his memory is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in North Brunswick, New Jersey.[25] A Memorial Mass was celebrated at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on October 14, 1918.[26]
Criticism and influence
"Trees"
Joyce Kilmer's reputation as a poet is staked largely on the widespread popularity of one poem—"Trees" (1913). It was first published in the August 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse which had begun publishing the year before in Chicago, Illinois[27] and was included as the title poem in a collection of poems Trees and Other Poems (1914).[28] According to Kilmer's oldest son, Kenton, the poem was written on February 2, 1913 when the family resided in Mahwah, New Jersey.
It was written in the afternoon in the intervals of some other writing. The desk was in an upstairs room, by a window looking down a wooded hill. It was written in a little notebook in which his father and mother wrote out copies of several of their poems, and, in most cases, added the date of composition. On one page the first two lines of 'Trees' appear, with the date, February 2, 1913, and on another page, further on in the book, is the full text of the poem. It was dedicated to his wife's mother, Mrs. Henry Mills Alden, who was endeared to all her family.[29]
Many locations including Rutgers University (where Kilmer attended for two years),[30][31] University of Notre Dame,[32] as well as historians in Mahwah, New Jersey and in other places,[33] have boasted that a specific tree was the inspiration for Kilmer's poem. However, Kenton Kilmer refutes these claims, remarking that,
Mother and I agreed, when we talked about it, that Dad never meant his poem to apply to one particular tree, or to the trees of any special region. Just any trees or all trees that might be rained on or snowed on, and that would be suitable nesting places for robins. I guess they'd have to have upward-reaching branches, too, for the line about 'lifting leafy arms to pray.' Rule out weeping willows."[29]
The popular appeal of this simple poem is likely the source of its endurance despite the continuing negative opinion of the poem's merits from scholars and critics. According to Robert Holliday, Kilmer's friend and editor, "Trees" speaks "with authentic song to the simplest of hearts" and that "(t)he exquisite title poem now so universally known, made his reputation more than all the rest he had written put together. That impeccable lyric which made for immediate widespread popularity."[34] Its popularity has also led to parodies of the poem—some by noted poets and writers. The pattern of its first lines (I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.) is of seemingly simple rhyme and meter and easy to mimic along with the poem's choice of metaphors. One of the best known parodies is "Song of the Open Road" by American humorist and poet Ogden Nash (1902–1971):
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.[35]
Influences upon Kilmer's verse
Kilmer's early works were inspired by, and were imitative of, the poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ernest Dowson, Aubrey Beardsley, and William Butler Yeats (and the Celtic Revival). It was later through the influence of works by Coventry Patmore, Francis Thompson, and those of Alice Meynell and her children Viola Meynell and Francis Meynell, that Kilmer seems to have become interested in Catholicism.[1]:p.19 Kilmer wrote of his influences:
I have come to regard them with intense admiration. Patmore seems to me to be a greater poet than Francis Thompson. He has not the rich vocabulary, the decorative erudition, the Shelleyan enthusiasm, which distinguish the Sister Songs and the Hound of Heaven, but he has a classical simplicity, a restraint and sincerity which make his poems satisfying.[1]:p.19
Because he was initially raised Episcopalian (or Anglican), Kilmer became literary editor of the Anglican weekly, The Churchman, before his conversion to Catholicism. During this time he did considerable research into 16th and 17th century Anglican poets as well as metaphysical, or mystic poets of that time, including George Herbert, Thomas Traherne, Robert Herrick, Bishop Coxe, and Robert Stephen Hawker (the eccentric vicar of the Church of Saint Morwenna and Saint John the Baptist at Morwenstow in Cornwall)—the latter whom he referred to as "a coast life-guard in a cassock." These poets also had an influence on Kilmer's writings.[1]:p.19
Critics compared Kilmer to British Catholic writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton—suggesting that his reputation might have risen to the level where he would have been considered their American counterpart if not for his untimely death.[36][37]
Criticism of Kilmer's work
Kilmer's death at age 31 removed from him the opportunity to develop into a more mature poet. Because modern critics and scholars often dismiss "Trees" as simple verse, much of Kilmer's work (especially his literary criticism) has slipped into obscurity. Only a very few of his poems have appeared in anthologies, and with the exception of "Trees"—and to a much lesser extent "Rouge Bouquet" (1917–1918)—almost none have obtained lasting widespread popularity.[1]:p.26[1]:p.40
The entire corpus of Kilmer's work was produced between 1909 and 1918 when Romanticism and sentimental lyric poetry fell out of favor and Modernism took root—especially with the influence of the Lost Generation. In the years after Kilmer's death, poetry went in drastically different directions, as is seen especially in the work of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Kilmer's verse is conservative and traditional, and does not break the formal rules of poetics—he can be considered as one of the last poets of the Romantic era. His style has been criticized for not breaking free of traditional modes of rhyme, meter, and theme, and for being too sentimental to be taken seriously.[38]
In the 1940 film, "The Fighting 69th", the role of Sergeant Joyce Kilmer was portrayed by actor Jeffrey Lynn.
Sgt. Joyce Kilmer Triangle
Sgt. Joyce Kilmer Triangle in Midwood, Brooklyn is named after him. The triangle, a resting place on Kings Highway (Brooklyn) intersecting Quentin Road (E. 12th–13th Streets), is the smallest park in New York City.[39][40] occupying 0.001 acres (0.00040 ha) of land.[41][42]
Works
• 1911: Summer of Love (poetry)
• 1914: Trees and Other Poems (poetry)
• 1916: The Circus and Other Essays (essays)
• 1917: Main Street and Other Poems. (poetry)
• 1917: The Courage of Enlightenment: An address delivered in Campion College, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to the members of the graduating class, June 15, 1917.
• 1917: Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets. (poetry anthology, edited by Kilmer)
• 1917: Literature in the Making by some of its Makers (criticism)
• 1918: Poems, Essays and Letters in Two Volumes Volume One: Memoir and Poems, Volume Two: prose works (collected works) (published posthumously, edited by Robert Cortes Holliday).
• 1919: Kilmer's unfinished history of the Fighting 69th (145th Infantry) is posthumously printed in Father Duffy's Story by Francis P. Duffy (New York: Doran, 1919).
• 1921: The Circus and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces (published posthumously)
FYI LTC John Shaw SPC Diana D. LTC Hillary Luton
1SG Steven ImermanSSG Pete FishGySgt Gary CordeiroPO1 H Gene LawrenceSPC Chris Bayner-CwikSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerMSG Tom EarleySSgt Marian MitchellSGT Michael HearnPO2 Frederick DunnSP5 Dennis LobergerCPO John BjorgeSGT Randell RoseSSG Jimmy CernichSGT Denny EspinosaMSG Fred Bucci
This talks looks at religious poetry in WWI. Rudyard Kipling's "Gethsemane" and Joyce Kilmer's "Prayer of a Soldier in France" are analysed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QABSSfdck0U
Images:
1. Joyce Kilmer Poem Stars
2. Sgt. Joyce Kilmer, as a member of the 165th Infantry Regiment, United States Army, May, 1918.
3. Tree-Planting Ceremony, September, 1955 - my cousins Robert and Ann participated in planting a tree in memory of their grandfather Joyce Kilmer during the dedication of the Ford Plant in Mahwah, NJ.
Background from {[https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Joyce_Kilmer]}
Joyce Kilmer
Joyce Kilmer
Born Alfred Joyce Kilmer on December 6, 1886 at New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.
Died July 30, 1918 (aged 31) near Seringes-et-esles, Marne, France
Cause of death Killed in action
Occupation Poet, journalist, editor, lecturer, soldier
Alma mater Columbia University (A.B. 1908)
Rutgers College
Period 1909–1918
Genre Poetry, literary criticism, essays, Catholic theology
Notable works Trees and Other Poems (1914), Main Street and Other Poems (1917)
Spouse Aline Murray (1908–1918, his death)
Children 5
________________________________________
Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his Roman Catholic religious faith, Kilmer was also a journalist, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. At the time of his deployment to Europe during World War I, Kilmer was considered the leading American Roman Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, whom critics often compared to British contemporaries G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) and Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953).[1]:p.27[2][3] He enlisted in the New York National Guard and was deployed to France with the 69th Infantry Regiment (the famous "Fighting 69th") in 1917. He was killed by a sniper's bullet at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31. He was married to Aline Murray, also an accomplished poet and author, with whom he had five children.
While most of his works are largely unknown today, a select few of his poems remain popular and are published frequently in anthologies. Several critics—including both Kilmer's contemporaries and modern scholars—have dismissed Kilmer's work as being too simple and overly sentimental, and suggested that his style was far too traditional, even archaic.[4] Many writers, including notably Ogden Nash, have parodied Kilmer's work and style—as attested by the many imitations of "Trees".
Biography
Early years and education: 1886–1908
Kilmer was born December 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, New Jersey,[5] the fourth and youngest child,[note 1] of Annie Ellen Kilburn (1849–1932), a minor writer and composer,[4][6] and Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer (1851–1934), a physician and analytical chemist employed by the Johnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company's baby powder.[7][8][9] He was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after two priests at Christ Church in New Brunswick: Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and the Rev. Dr. Elisha Brooks Joyce (1857–1926), the rector. Christ Church is the oldest Episcopal parish in New Brunswick and the Kilmer family were parishioners.[10] Rector Joyce, who served the parish from 1883 to 1916, baptised the young Kilmer,[11] who remained an Episcopalian until his 1913 conversion to Catholicism. Kilmer's birthplace in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family lived from 1886 to 1892, is still standing, and houses a small museum to Kilmer, as well as a few Middlesex County government offices.[12]
Kilmer entered Rutgers College Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School) in 1895 at the age of 8. During his years at the Grammar School, Kilmer was editor-in-chief of the school's paper, the Argo, and loved the classics but had difficulty with Greek. He won the first Lane Classical Prize, for oratory, and obtained a scholarship to Rutgers College which he would attend the following year. Despite his difficulties with Greek and mathematics, he stood at the head of his class in preparatory school.[1]:p.9
After graduating from Rutgers College Grammar School in 1904, he continued his education at Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) from 1904 to 1906. At Rutgers, Kilmer was associate editor of the Targum, the campus newspaper, and a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.[13] However, he was unable to complete the curriculum's rigorous mathematics requirement and was asked to repeat his sophomore year. Under pressure from his mother, Kilmer transferred to Columbia University in New York City.[1]:p.10
At Columbia, Kilmer was vice-president of the Philolexian Society (a literary society), associate editor of Columbia Spectator (the campus newspaper), and member of the Debating Union. He completed his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree and graduated from Columbia on May 23, 1908.[1]:p.11 Shortly after graduation, on June 9, 1908, he married Aline Murray (1888–1941), a fellow poet to whom he had been engaged since his sophomore year at Rutgers.[1]:p.11[14] The Kilmers had five children: Kenton Sinclair Kilmer (1909–1995); Rose Kilburn Kilmer (1912–1917); Deborah ("Sister Michael") Clanton Kilmer (1914–1999) who was a Catholic nun at Saint Benedict Monastery; Michael Barry Kilmer (1916–1927); and Christopher Kilmer (1917–1984).[7]
Years of writing and faith: 1909–1917
In the autumn of 1908, Kilmer was employed teaching Latin at Morristown High School in Morristown, New Jersey.[4] At this time, he began to submit essays to Red Cross Notes (including his first published piece, an essay on the "Psychology of Advertising") and his early poems to literary periodicals. Kilmer also wrote book reviews for The Literary Digest, Town & Country, The Nation, and The New York Times. By June 1909, Kilmer had abandoned any aspirations to continue teaching and relocated to New York City, where he focused solely on developing a career as a writer.[1]:p.13
From 1909 to 1912, Kilmer was employed by Funk and Wagnalls, which was preparing an edition of The Standard Dictionary that would be published in 1912.[4] According to Hillis, Kilmer's job "was to define ordinary words assigned to him at five cents for each word defined. This was a job at which one would ordinarily earn ten to twelve dollars a week, but Kilmer attacked the task with such vigor and speed that it was soon thought wisest to put him on a regular salary."[1]:p.14
In 1911, Kilmer's first book of verse was published, entitled Summer of Love. Kilmer would later write that "...some of the poems in it, those inspired by genuine love, are not things of which to be ashamed, and you, understanding, would not be offended by the others."[1]:p.18
In 1912, Kilmer became a special writer for the New York Times Review of Books and the New York Times Sunday Magazine and was often engaged in lecturing.[4] He moved to Mahwah, New Jersey, where he resided until his service and death in World War I. By this time he had become established as a published poet and as a popular lecturer. According to Robert Holliday, Kilmer "frequently neglected to make any preparation for his speeches, not even choosing a subject until the beginning of the dinner which was to culminate in a specimen of his oratory. His constant research for the dictionary, and, later on, for his New York Times articles, must have given him a store of knowledge at his fingertips to be produced at a moment's notice for these emergencies."[1]:p.21[15]
When the Kilmers' daughter Rose (1912–1917) was stricken with poliomyelitis (also known as infantile paralysis) shortly after birth,[4] they turned to their religious faith for comfort. A series of correspondence between Kilmer and Father James J. Daly led the Kilmers to convert to Roman Catholicism, and they were received in the church in 1913. In one of these letters Kilmer writes that he "believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time," and he "wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental – in fact I wanted Faith." Kilmer would stop "every morning for months" on his way "to the office and prayed for faith," claiming that when "faith did come, it came, I think, by way of my little paralyzed daughter. Her lifeless hands led me; I think her tiny feet know beautiful paths. You understand this and it gives me a selfish pleasure to write it down."[16][17]
With the publication of "Trees" in the magazine Poetry in August 1913, Kilmer gained immense popularity as a poet across the United States. He had established himself as a successful lecturer—particularly one seeking to reach a Catholic audience. His close friend and editor Robert Holliday wrote that it "is not an unsupported assertion to say that he was in his time and place the laureate of the Catholic Church."[15] Trees and Other Poems (1914) was published the following year. This collection also introduced the popular poem "The House With Nobody In It". Over the next few years, Kilmer was prolific in his output, managing an intense schedule of lectures, publishing a large number of essays and literary criticism, and writing poetry. In 1915 he became poetry editor of Current Literature and contributing editor of Warner's Library of the World's Best Literature. In 1916 and 1917, before the American entry into World War I, Kilmer would publish four books: The Circus and Other Essays (1916), a series of interviews with literary personages entitled Literature in the Making (1917), Main Street and Other Poems (1917), and Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets (1917).[4]
War years: 1917–1918
In April 1917, a few days after the United States entered World War I, Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National Guard. In August, Kilmer was assigned as a statistician with the 165th Infantry Regiment (better known as the re-designated "Fighting 69th", U.S. 69th Infantry Regiment), of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division, and quickly rose to the rank of sergeant. Though he was eligible for commission as an officer and often recommended for such posts during the course of the war, Kilmer refused, stating that he would rather be a sergeant in the Fighting 69th than an officer in any other regiment.[1]:p.35
Shortly before his deployment to Europe, the Kilmers' daughter Rose had died, and twelve days later, their son Christopher was born.[1]:p.32 Before his departure, Kilmer had contracted with publishers to write a book about the war, deciding upon the title Here and There with the Fighting Sixty-Ninth. The regiment arrived in France in November 1917, and Kilmer wrote to his wife that he had not written "anything in prose or verse since I got here—except statistics—but I've stored up a lot of memories to turn into copy when I get a chance."[18] Kilmer did not write such a book; however, toward the end of the year, he did find time to write prose sketches and poetry. The most notable of his poems during this period was "Rouge Bouquet" (1918) which commemorated the deaths of two dozen members of his regiment in a German artillery barrage on American trench positions in the Rouge Bouquet forest north-east of the French village of Baccarat. At the time, this was a relatively quiet sector of the front, but the first battalion was struck by a German heavy artillery bombardment on the afternoon of March 7, 1918 that buried 21 men of the unit, killing 19 (of which 14 remained entombed).[19][20][21]:p.350
Kilmer sought more hazardous duty and was transferred to the military intelligence section of his regiment, in April 1918. In a letter to his wife, Aline, he remarked: "Now I'm doing work I love – and work you may be proud of. None of the drudgery of soldiering, but a double share of glory and thrills."[1]:p.36 According to Hillis, Kilmer's fellow soldiers had accorded him much respect for his battlefield demeanour—"He was worshipped by the men about him. I have heard them speak with awe of his coolness and his nerve in scouting patrols in no man's land. This coolness and his habit of choosing, with typical enthusiasm, the most dangerous and difficult missions, led to his death."[1]:p.36
Death and burial
During the Second Battle of Marne there was heavy fighting throughout the last days of July 1918. On July 30, 1918, Kilmer volunteered to accompany Major "Wild Bill" Donovan (later, in World War II, the founder of the Office of Strategic Services, forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency) when Donovan's battalion (1–165th Infantry) was sent to lead the day's attack.
During the course of the day, Kilmer led a scouting party to find the position of a German machine gun. When his comrades found him, some time later, they thought at first that he was peering over the edge of a little hill, where he had crawled for a better view. When he did not answer their call, they ran to him and found him dead. According to Father Francis P. Duffy: “A bullet had pierced his brain. His body was carried in and buried by the side of Ames. God rest his dear and gallant soul.”[21]:p.193 A sniper's bullet likely killed him immediately. According to military records, Kilmer died on the battlefield near Muercy Farm, beside the Ourcq River near the village of Seringes-et-Nesles, in France, on July 30, 1918 at the age of 31.[22] For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre (War Cross) by the French Republic.[23]
Kilmer was buried in the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery and Memorial, near Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisne, Picardy, France just across the road and stream from the farm where he was killed.[24] A cenotaph erected to his memory is located on the Kilmer family plot in Elmwood Cemetery, in North Brunswick, New Jersey.[25] A Memorial Mass was celebrated at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City on October 14, 1918.[26]
Criticism and influence
"Trees"
Joyce Kilmer's reputation as a poet is staked largely on the widespread popularity of one poem—"Trees" (1913). It was first published in the August 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse which had begun publishing the year before in Chicago, Illinois[27] and was included as the title poem in a collection of poems Trees and Other Poems (1914).[28] According to Kilmer's oldest son, Kenton, the poem was written on February 2, 1913 when the family resided in Mahwah, New Jersey.
It was written in the afternoon in the intervals of some other writing. The desk was in an upstairs room, by a window looking down a wooded hill. It was written in a little notebook in which his father and mother wrote out copies of several of their poems, and, in most cases, added the date of composition. On one page the first two lines of 'Trees' appear, with the date, February 2, 1913, and on another page, further on in the book, is the full text of the poem. It was dedicated to his wife's mother, Mrs. Henry Mills Alden, who was endeared to all her family.[29]
Many locations including Rutgers University (where Kilmer attended for two years),[30][31] University of Notre Dame,[32] as well as historians in Mahwah, New Jersey and in other places,[33] have boasted that a specific tree was the inspiration for Kilmer's poem. However, Kenton Kilmer refutes these claims, remarking that,
Mother and I agreed, when we talked about it, that Dad never meant his poem to apply to one particular tree, or to the trees of any special region. Just any trees or all trees that might be rained on or snowed on, and that would be suitable nesting places for robins. I guess they'd have to have upward-reaching branches, too, for the line about 'lifting leafy arms to pray.' Rule out weeping willows."[29]
The popular appeal of this simple poem is likely the source of its endurance despite the continuing negative opinion of the poem's merits from scholars and critics. According to Robert Holliday, Kilmer's friend and editor, "Trees" speaks "with authentic song to the simplest of hearts" and that "(t)he exquisite title poem now so universally known, made his reputation more than all the rest he had written put together. That impeccable lyric which made for immediate widespread popularity."[34] Its popularity has also led to parodies of the poem—some by noted poets and writers. The pattern of its first lines (I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.) is of seemingly simple rhyme and meter and easy to mimic along with the poem's choice of metaphors. One of the best known parodies is "Song of the Open Road" by American humorist and poet Ogden Nash (1902–1971):
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.[35]
Influences upon Kilmer's verse
Kilmer's early works were inspired by, and were imitative of, the poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Ernest Dowson, Aubrey Beardsley, and William Butler Yeats (and the Celtic Revival). It was later through the influence of works by Coventry Patmore, Francis Thompson, and those of Alice Meynell and her children Viola Meynell and Francis Meynell, that Kilmer seems to have become interested in Catholicism.[1]:p.19 Kilmer wrote of his influences:
I have come to regard them with intense admiration. Patmore seems to me to be a greater poet than Francis Thompson. He has not the rich vocabulary, the decorative erudition, the Shelleyan enthusiasm, which distinguish the Sister Songs and the Hound of Heaven, but he has a classical simplicity, a restraint and sincerity which make his poems satisfying.[1]:p.19
Because he was initially raised Episcopalian (or Anglican), Kilmer became literary editor of the Anglican weekly, The Churchman, before his conversion to Catholicism. During this time he did considerable research into 16th and 17th century Anglican poets as well as metaphysical, or mystic poets of that time, including George Herbert, Thomas Traherne, Robert Herrick, Bishop Coxe, and Robert Stephen Hawker (the eccentric vicar of the Church of Saint Morwenna and Saint John the Baptist at Morwenstow in Cornwall)—the latter whom he referred to as "a coast life-guard in a cassock." These poets also had an influence on Kilmer's writings.[1]:p.19
Critics compared Kilmer to British Catholic writers Hilaire Belloc and G. K. Chesterton—suggesting that his reputation might have risen to the level where he would have been considered their American counterpart if not for his untimely death.[36][37]
Criticism of Kilmer's work
Kilmer's death at age 31 removed from him the opportunity to develop into a more mature poet. Because modern critics and scholars often dismiss "Trees" as simple verse, much of Kilmer's work (especially his literary criticism) has slipped into obscurity. Only a very few of his poems have appeared in anthologies, and with the exception of "Trees"—and to a much lesser extent "Rouge Bouquet" (1917–1918)—almost none have obtained lasting widespread popularity.[1]:p.26[1]:p.40
The entire corpus of Kilmer's work was produced between 1909 and 1918 when Romanticism and sentimental lyric poetry fell out of favor and Modernism took root—especially with the influence of the Lost Generation. In the years after Kilmer's death, poetry went in drastically different directions, as is seen especially in the work of T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. Kilmer's verse is conservative and traditional, and does not break the formal rules of poetics—he can be considered as one of the last poets of the Romantic era. His style has been criticized for not breaking free of traditional modes of rhyme, meter, and theme, and for being too sentimental to be taken seriously.[38]
In the 1940 film, "The Fighting 69th", the role of Sergeant Joyce Kilmer was portrayed by actor Jeffrey Lynn.
Sgt. Joyce Kilmer Triangle
Sgt. Joyce Kilmer Triangle in Midwood, Brooklyn is named after him. The triangle, a resting place on Kings Highway (Brooklyn) intersecting Quentin Road (E. 12th–13th Streets), is the smallest park in New York City.[39][40] occupying 0.001 acres (0.00040 ha) of land.[41][42]
Works
• 1911: Summer of Love (poetry)
• 1914: Trees and Other Poems (poetry)
• 1916: The Circus and Other Essays (essays)
• 1917: Main Street and Other Poems. (poetry)
• 1917: The Courage of Enlightenment: An address delivered in Campion College, Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, to the members of the graduating class, June 15, 1917.
• 1917: Dreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets. (poetry anthology, edited by Kilmer)
• 1917: Literature in the Making by some of its Makers (criticism)
• 1918: Poems, Essays and Letters in Two Volumes Volume One: Memoir and Poems, Volume Two: prose works (collected works) (published posthumously, edited by Robert Cortes Holliday).
• 1919: Kilmer's unfinished history of the Fighting 69th (145th Infantry) is posthumously printed in Father Duffy's Story by Francis P. Duffy (New York: Doran, 1919).
• 1921: The Circus and Other Essays and Fugitive Pieces (published posthumously)
FYI LTC John Shaw SPC Diana D. LTC Hillary Luton
1SG Steven ImermanSSG Pete FishGySgt Gary CordeiroPO1 H Gene LawrenceSPC Chris Bayner-CwikSgt Jim BelanusSGM Bill FrazerMSG Tom EarleySSgt Marian MitchellSGT Michael HearnPO2 Frederick DunnSP5 Dennis LobergerCPO John BjorgeSGT Randell RoseSSG Jimmy CernichSGT Denny EspinosaMSG Fred Bucci
(2)
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5
0
3
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