Biography of joyce kilmer trees poem analysis

Poet introduction-Joyce Kilmer

The poem ‘Trees’ was written by Alfred Joyce Kilmer an American writer and poet in February of 1913. It was first published in 1914 in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse and later published in his collection Trees and Other Poems.

This poem is one of the most well-known among Kilmer’s poems and was even set to music many times due to its lyrical nature. His eldest son Kenton Kilmer says that ‘Trees’ was written in their upstairs bedroom that overlooked a wooded hill, at Mahwah, New Jersey.

Trees poem by Joyce Kilmer

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.

Stanza-wise summary of the poem Trees

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