Joyce Kilmer’s career as a poet was cut short by sniper fire during the waning months of the First World War. His reputation today, such as it is, rests on a single work -- “Trees” –- one of the most parodied poems in the English language.
Yet Kilmer wrote other poems during his brief life, and some are still worth reading.
The poem quoted below is one of them. Read it to the end. If the last line gives you a shock, then I think you’ll have to admit that Kilmer was a poet after all.
Memorial Day
The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,
But not of war it sings to-day.
The road is rhythmic with the feet
Of men-at-arms who come to pray.
The roses blossom white and red
On tombs where weary soldiers lie;
Flags wave above the honored dead
And martial music cleaves the sky.
Above their wreath-strewn graves we kneel,
They kept the faith and fought the fight.
Through flying lead and crimson steel
They plunged for Freedom and the Right.
May we, their grateful children, learn
Their strength, who lie beneath this sod,
Who went through fire and death to earn
At last the accolade of God.
In shining rank on rank arrayed
They march, the legions of the Lord;
He is their Captain unafraid,
The Prince of Peace . . . Who brought a sword.
-- Joyce Kilmer
Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) was posthumously awarded the Croix de Guerre. He lies in the Oise-Aisne Cemetery, Fere-en-Tardenois, France. On this Memorial Day, we honor him and all those who died in the service of our country.
