Joyce Kilmer

Sergeant Joyce Kilmer in uniform (1918)

It's always nice to be pleasantly surprised by something you just stumble on.

Today, while glancing through a collection of religious poetry, I came across a poem penned by Joyce Kilmer. Kilmer, an American poet, literary critic and journalist, is best known for his poem "Trees" with which most high-schoolers of my generation are familiar. Kilmer joined the Army during World War One and was killed at the 2nd Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31. He is probably the best known American Catholic poet of his time.

Kilmer was a prolific poet but until today I had read few of his poems. But those that I had read I found especially appealing because of their simplicity and deep feeling. Interestingly, these are the same traits for which many modern critics disparage his poems. But then, who cares what modern critics think? After all, they write only to each other.

The poem I came across today is a brief hymn to the Blessed Virgin.

       The Singing Girl

There was a little maiden
   In blue and silver drest,
She sang to God in Heaven
   And God within her breast.

It flooded me with pleasure,
   It pierced me like a sword,
When this young maiden sang: "My soul
   Doth magnify the Lord."

The stars sing all together
   And hear the angels sing,
But they said they had never heard
   So beautiful a thing.

Saint Mary and Saint Joseph,
   And Saint Elizabeth,
Pray for us poets now
   And at the hour of death.

God's peace...