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Joyce Kilmer | |
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 Kilmer's Columbia University yearbook photograph, c. 1908 | |
| Born | Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886-12-06)December 6, 1886 |
| Died | July 30, 1918(1918-07-30) (aged 31) nearSeringes-et-Nesles, Marne, France |
| Cause of death | Killed in action |
| Resting place | Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, France |
| 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 |
| Signature | |
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Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an Americanwriter andpoet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collectionTrees and Other Poems in 1914. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of thenatural world as well as hisCatholic faith, Kilmer was also ajournalist,literary critic,lecturer, andeditor. At the time of his deployment to Europe duringWorld War I, Kilmer was considered the leading American Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, whom critics often compared to British contemporariesG. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) andHilaire Belloc (1870–1953).[1]: p. 27 [2][3] He enlisted in theNew York National Guard and was deployed toFrance with the69th Infantry Regiment (the famous "Fighting 69th") in 1917. He was killed by asniper's bullet at theSecond Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31. He was married toAline Murray, also an accomplished poet andauthor, 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 inanthologies. Several critics—including both Kilmer's contemporaries and modern scholars—have dismissed Kilmer's work as being too simple and overlysentimental, and suggested that his style was far too traditional, even archaic.[4] Many writers, including notablyOgden Nash, haveparodied Kilmer's work and style—as attested by the many imitations of "Trees."
Kilmer was born December 6, 1886, inNew Brunswick, New Jersey,[5] the fourth and youngest child,[note 1] of Annie Ellen Kilburn, a minor writer and composer,[4][6] andFrederick Barnett Kilmer, a physician and analytical chemist employed by theJohnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company'sbaby powder.[7][8][9] He was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after two priests atChrist Church in New Brunswick: Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and Elisha Brooks Joyce, the rector. Christ Church is the oldestEpiscopal 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 fewMiddlesex County government offices.[12]
Kilmer entered Rutgers College Grammar School (nowRutgers 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, theArgo, 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 atRutgers College (now Rutgers University) from 1904 to 1906. At Rutgers, Kilmer was associate editor of theTargum, thecampus newspaper, and a member of theDelta 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 toColumbia University in New York City.[1]: p.10
At Columbia, Kilmer was vice-president of thePhilolexian Society (a literary society), associate editor ofColumbia Spectator (the campus newspaper), and member of the Debating Union. He completed hisBachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree and graduated from Columbia on May 23, 1908.[1]: p.11 Shortly after graduation, on June 9, 1908, he marriedAline 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 Clanton Kilmer (1914–1999), who became a nun ("Sister Michael") at theSaint Benedict Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota; Michael Barry Kilmer (1916–1927); and Christopher Kilmer (1917–1984).[7]
In the autumn of 1908, Kilmer was employed teaching Latin atMorristown High School inMorristown, New Jersey.[4] At this time, he began to submit essays toRed 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 forThe Literary Digest,Town & Country,The Nation, andThe 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 byFunk and Wagnalls, which was preparing an edition ofThe 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, entitledSummer of Love. Kilmer later wrote, "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 theNew York Times Review of Books and theNew York Times Sunday Magazine and was often engaged in lecturing.[4] He moved toMahwah, New Jersey, where he resided until his service and death inWorld 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 withpoliomyelitis (also known as infantile paralysis) shortly after birth,[4] they turned to their religious faith for comfort. A series of correspondence between Kilmer and Fr. James J. Daly led the Kilmers to convert to Catholicism, and they werereceived 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 magazinePoetry 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 ofCurrent Literature and contributing editor ofWarner's Library of the World's Best Literature. In 1916 and 1917, before theAmerican entry into World War I, Kilmer would publish four books:The Circus and Other Essays (1916), a series of interviews with literary personages entitledLiterature in the Making (1917),Main Street and Other Poems (1917), andDreams and Images: An Anthology of Catholic Poets (1917).[4] In the aftermath of the 1916Easter Rising in Ireland, Kilmer helped organize a large memorial service in New Yorks Central Park for those who died in that conflict.[18]
In April 1917, a few days after the United States enteredWorld War I, Kilmer enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of theNew York National Guard. In August, Kilmer was assigned as a statistician with the165th Infantry Regiment (better known as the re-designated "Fighting 69th", the69th New York Infantry Regiment), of the42nd "Rainbow" Division, and quickly rose to the rank ofsergeant. 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 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 titleHere 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."[19] 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 theRouge Bouquet forest north-east of the French village ofBaccarat. At the time, this was a relatively quiet sector of the front, but the first battalion was struck by a Germanheavy artillerybombardment on the afternoon of March 7, 1918, that buried 21 men of the unit, killing 19 (of which 14 remained entombed).[20][21][22]: p.350
Kilmer sought more hazardous duty and was transferred to themilitary 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 inno 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
During theSecond 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 theOffice of Strategic Services, forerunner to theCentral 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 FatherFrancis 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."[22]: p.193 Asniper's bullet likely killed him instantly. According to military records, Kilmer died on the battlefield near Muercy Farm, beside the Ourcq River near the village ofSeringes-et-Nesles, in France, on July 30, 1918, at the age of 31.[23] For his valor, Kilmer was posthumously awarded theCroix de Guerre (War Cross) by theFrench Republic.[24]
Kilmer was buried in theOise-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.[25] Acenotaph erected to his memory is located on the Kilmer family plot inElmwood Cemetery, inNorth Brunswick, New Jersey.[26] A Memorial Mass was celebrated atSt. Patrick's Cathedral inNew York City on October 14, 1918.[27]
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 ofPoetry: A Magazine of Verse which had begun publishing the year before inChicago, Illinois[28] and was included as the title poem in a collection of poemsTrees and Other Poems (1914).[29] 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.[30]
Many locations includingRutgers University (where Kilmer attended for two years),[31][32]University of Notre Dame,[33] as well as historians in Mahwah, New Jersey and in other places,[34] 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."[30]
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."[35] 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 simplerhyme andmeter and easy to mimic along with the poem's choice ofmetaphors. One of the best known parodies is "Song of the Open Road" by American humorist and poetOgden Nash (1902–1971):[36]
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.
Kilmer's early works were inspired by, and were imitative of, the poetry ofAlgernon Charles Swinburne,Gerard Manley Hopkins,Ernest Dowson,Aubrey Beardsley, andWilliam Butler Yeats (and theCeltic Revival). It was later through the influence of works byCoventry Patmore,Francis Thompson, and those ofAlice Meynell and her childrenViola Meynell andFrancis 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 theSister Songs and theHound of Heaven, but he has a classical simplicity, a restraint and sincerity which make his poems satisfying.[1]: p.19
Because he was initially raisedEpiscopalian (or Anglican), Kilmer became literary editor of the Anglican weekly,The Churchman, before his conversion toCatholicism. During this time he did considerable research into 16th and 17th century Anglican poets as well asmetaphysical, or mystic poets of that time, includingGeorge Herbert,Thomas Traherne,Robert Herrick,Bishop Coxe, andRobert Stephen Hawker (the eccentric vicar of theChurch of Saint Morwenna and Saint John the Baptist atMorwenstow inCornwall)—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 writersHilaire Belloc andG. 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.[37][38]
Kilmer's death at age 31 denied him the opportunity to develop into a more mature poet. Because modern critics[citation needed] 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 whenRomanticism andsentimentallyric poetry fell out of favor andModernism took root—especially with the influence of theLost Generation. In the years after Kilmer's death, poetry went in drastically different directions, as is seen especially in the work ofT. S. Eliot andEzra 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 theRomantic era. His style has been criticized for not breaking free of traditional modes ofrhyme, meter, and theme, and for being too sentimental to be taken seriously.[39]
In the 1940 film, "The Fighting 69th", the role of Sergeant Joyce Kilmer was portrayed by actorJeffrey Lynn.
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{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)(2015) There is a tie for the honor of smallest park: Sgt. Joyce Kilmer Triangle in Midwood, Brooklyn, and Luke J. Lang Square in Maspeth, Queens
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