"What if They Gave a War and Nobody Came?"

[Alfred Joyce Kilmer, a devout Catholic from New Jersey, wrote many poems and essays. The following, which he wrote at age 26, is his best-known work.]

TREES

(For Mrs. Henry Mills Alden)


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.

[Joyce Kilmer was killed at age 31 while "fighting for his country" in France, where he is buried. Que sera, sera. ISN'T WAR A GRAND AND GLORIOUS THING?]