Joyce Kilmer

Joyce Kilmer (full name: Alfred Joyce Kilmer, December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American journalist and poet; his best-known work is "Trees". The poem is notable for its anthropomorphism: the tree in the poem presses its mouth to the earth's breast and looks at God and raises its leafy arms to pray. The poem was given a musical setting that was quite popular in the 1940s and 1950s.

"Trees"

:I think that I shall never see

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:A poem lovely as a tree.

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:A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

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:Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

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:A tree that looks at God all day,

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:And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

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:A tree that may in summer wear

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:A nest of robins in her hair;

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:Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

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:Who intimately lives with rain.

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:Poems are made by fools like me,

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:But only God can make a tree.

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