"Trees" is a lyric poem by American poet Joyce Kilmer. Written in February 1913, it was first published in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse that August and included in Kilmer's 1914 collection Trees and Other Poems.Letter from Kenton Kilmer to Dorothy Colson in Grotto Sources file, Dorothy Corson Collection, University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana).Kilmer, Joyce. L"Trees" in Monroe, Harriet (editor), Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. (Chicago: Modern Poetry Association, August 1913), 2:160.Kilmer, Joyce. Trees and Other Poems. (New York: Doubleday Doran and Co., 1914), 18. The poem, in twelve lines of rhyming couplets of iambic tetrameter verse, describes what Kilmer perceives as the inability of art created by humankind to replicate the beauty achieved by nature.
Kilmer is most remembered for "Trees", which has been the subject of frequent parodies and references in popular culture. Kilmer's work is often disparaged by critics and dismissed by scholars as being too simple and overly sentimental, and that his style was far too traditional and even archaic.Hart, James A. Joyce Kilmer 1886–1918 (Biography) at Poetry Magazine. (Retrieved August 15, 2012). Despite this, the popular appeal of "Trees" has contributed to its endurance. Literary critic Guy Davenport considers it "the one poem known by practically everybody".<ref name="USAToday06MAY2013Shift">Hampson, Rick. "Shift in education priorities could topple poem 'Trees'" in USA Today''' (May 6, 2013). Retrieved May 22, 2013.</ref> "Trees" is frequently included in poetry anthologies and has been set to music several times—including a popular rendition by Oscar Rasbach, performed by singers Nelson Eddy, Robert Merrill, and Paul Robeson.
The location for a specific tree as the possible inspiration for the poem has been claimed by several places and institutions connected to Kilmer's life; among these are Rutgers University, the University of Notre Dame, and towns across the country that Kilmer visited. However, Kilmer's eldest son, Kenton, declares that the poem does not apply to any one tree—that it could apply equally to any. "Trees" was written in an upstairs bedroom at the family's home in Mahwah, New Jersey, that "looked out down a hill, on our well-wooded lawn".Kilmer, Miriam A. Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) - Author of Trees and Other Poems (website of family member). Retrieved May 22, 2013Kilmer, Kenton. Memories of My Father, Joyce Kilmer (New Brunswick: Joyce Kilmer Centennial Commission, 1993), 89. Kenton Kilmer stated that while his father was "widely known for his affection for trees, his affection was certainly not sentimental—the most distinguished feature of Kilmer's property was a colossal woodpile outside his home".Hillis, John. Joyce Kilmer: A Bio-Bibliography. Master of Science (Library Science) Thesis. Catholic University of America. (Washington, DC: 1962).
Writing
Mahwah: February 1913 According to Kilmer's oldest son, Kenton, "Trees" was written on February 2, 1913, when the family resided in Mahwah, New Jersey, in the northwestern corner of Bergen County. The Kilmers lived on the southwest corner of the intersection of Airmount Road and Armour Road in Mahwah for five years and the house overlooked the Ramapo Valley.Pries, Allison. "Letter backs Mahwah's claim on Joyce Kilmer poem 'Trees'" in The Record (May 10, 2013). Retrieved May 22, 2013.There is also an Airmont Avenue in Mahwah; the Kilmers lived on Airmount Road, not Airmont Ave.
It was written in the afternoon in the intervals of some other writing. The desk was in an upstairs room, by a window looking down a wooded hill. It was written in a little notebook in which his father and mother wrote out copies of several of their poems and, in most cases, added the date of composition. On one page the first two lines of 'Trees' appear, with the date, February 2, 1913, and on another page, further on in the book, is the full text of the poem. It was dedicated to his wife's mother, Mrs. Henry Mills Alden, who was endeared to all her family.In a 1929 letter, Kilmer's widow, Aline, wrote a verbatim account: "The poem, I definitely remember, was written at home, in the afternoon, in the intervals of some writings. The desk was in an upstairs room, by a window looking down a wooded hill." Letter, Aline Kilmer to Joanna Zanders (25 March 1929), in the Georgetown University Lauinger Library (Washington, DC).
In 2013, the notebook alluded to by Kilmer's son was uncovered by journalist and Kilmer researcher Alex Michelini in Georgetown University's Lauinger Library in a collection of family papers donated to the university by Kilmer's granddaughter, Miriam Kilmer.McGlone, Peggy. "Mystery solved: Joyce Kilmer's famous 'Trees' penned in N.J." in The Star-Ledger (May 10, 2013). Retrieved May 22, 2013. The "Mrs. Henry Mills Alden" to whom the poem was dedicated was Ada Foster Murray Alden (1866–1936), the mother of Kilmer's wife, Aline Murray Kilmer (1888–1941). Alden, a writer, had married Harper's Magazine editor Henry Mills Alden in 1900."Mrs. Henry Alden, Writer, dies at 70. Was Widow of Editor of Harper's. Won National Award at 76. Published at 15. Poem, 'Trees,' Was Dedicated to her by Author, Joyce Kilmer, Her Son-in-Law." The New York Times April 12, 1936."In and Around the Village" in Metuchen Recorder (February 24, 1900).
Kilmer's inspiration Kilmer's poetry was influenced by "his strong religious faith and dedication to the natural beauty of the world."Hartley, Marsden. "Tribute to Joyce Kilmer" in Poetry: A Magazine of Verse (December 1918), 149–154.
Although several communities across the United States claim to have inspired "Trees",What a Difference a Tree Makes citing Lax, Roer and Smith, Frederick. The Great Song Thesaurus. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). . Retrieved December 25, 2006.Devlin, John C. "Kilmer Recalled as Oak is Felled; Kilmer's Tree (Or Was It?) Will Inspire No More" in The New York Times (September 19, 1963).Corson, Dorothy V. A Cave of Candles: The Story behind the Notre Dame Grotto, found online here (accessed August 15, 2012).Curley, John. "End of Legend: Kilmer's Oak to Fall" The Free Lance-Star. (September 17, 1963). nothing can be established specifically regarding Kilmer's inspiration except that he wrote the poem while residing in Mahwah. Both Kilmer's widow, Aline, and his son, Kenton, refuted these claims in their correspondence with researchers and by Kenton in his memoir. Kenton wrote to University of Notre Dame researcher Dorothy Colson:
Mother and I agreed, when we talked about it, that Dad never meant his poem to apply to one particular tree, or to the trees of any special region. Just any trees or all trees that might be rained on or snowed on, and that would be suitable nesting places for robins. I guess they'd have to have upward-reaching branches, too, for the line about 'lifting leafy arms to pray.' Rule out weeping willows.
According to Kenton Kilmer, the upstairs room in which the poem was written looked down the hill over the family's "well-wooded lawn" that contained "trees of many kinds, from mature trees to thin saplings: oaks, maples, black and white birches, and I do not know what else." A published interview with Joyce Kilmer in 1915 mentioned the poet's large woodpile at the family's Mahwah home:
while Kilmer might be widely known for his affection for trees, his affection was certainly not sentimental—the most distinguished feature of Kilmer's property was a colossal woodpile outside his home. The house stood in the middle of a forest and what lawn it possessed was obtained only after Kilmer had spent months of weekend toil in chopping down trees, pulling up stumps, and splitting logs. Kilmer's neighbors had difficulty in believing that a man who could do that could also be a poet.
Scansion and analysis
"Trees" is a poem of twelve lines in strict iambic tetrameter. The eleventh, or penultimate, line inverts the first foot, so that it contains the same number of syllables, but the first two are a trochee. The poem's rhyme scheme is rhyming couplets rendered AA BB CC DD EE AA.Dunnings, Stephen. "Scripting: A Way of Talking" in The English Journal, Vol. 63, No. 6 (September 1974), 32-40, passim.
Despite its deceptive simplicity in rhyme and meter, "Trees" is notable for its use of personification and anthropomorphic imagery: the tree of the poem, which Kilmer depicts as female, is depicted as pressing its mouth to the Earth's breast, looking at God, and raising its "leafy arms" to pray. The tree of the poem also has human physical attributes—it has a "hungry mouth", arms, hair (in which robins nest), and a bosom.Boyle, Frederick H. "Eighth Graders Discover Poetry" in The English Journal, Vol. 46, No. 8 (November 1957), 506-507.Winchell, Mark Royden. Cleanth Brooks and the Rise of Modern Criticism (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 1996), 159.
Rutgers-Newark English professor and poet Rachel Hadas described the poem as being "rather slight" although it "is free of irony and self consciousness, except that little reference to fools like me at the end, which I find kind of charming".Hadas' comments were on the public radio program segment exploring legacy of Kilmer's poem as "one of the most quoted poems in American history" and its many interpretations in "A poem as lovely as a tree" on American Public Media's Weekend America (December 3, 2005), segment producer: Sarah Elzas, editors: Amanda Aronczyk and Jim Gates. Retrieved July 21, 2013. Scholar Mark Royden Winchell points out that Kilmer's depiction of the tree indicates the possibility that he had several different people in mind because of the variety of anthropomorphic descriptions. Winchell posits that if the tree described were to be a single human being it would be "an anatomically deformed one".
In the second stanza, the tree is a sucking babe drawing nourishment from Mother Earth; in the third it is a supplicant reaching its leafy arms to the sky in prayer ... In the fourth stanza, the tree is a girl with jewels (a nest of robins) in her hair; and in the fifth, it is a chaste woman living alone with nature and with God. There is no warrant in the poem to say that it is different trees that remind the poet of these different types of people.
However, Winchell observes that this "series of fanciful analogies ... could be presented in any order without damaging the overall structure of his poem".
Publication and reception
Publication "Trees" was first published in the August 1913 issue of Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. The magazine, which had begun publishing the year before in Chicago, Illinois, quickly became the "principal organ for modern poetry of the English-speaking world" publishing the early works of poets who became the major influences on the development of twentieth-century literature (including T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, H.D., Wallace Stevens, Robert Frost and Edna St. Vincent Millay)."Monroe, Harriet". Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia Of Literature. (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1995), 773.Goodyear, Dana, "The Moneyed Muse: What can two hundred million dollars do for poetry?" in The New Yorker (double issue: February 19/February 26, 2007). Retrieved August 1, 2013. Poetry paid Kilmer six dollars to print the poem, which was immediately successful.Cargas, Harry J. I Lay Down My Life: Biography of Joyce Kilmer (Boston: St. Paul Editions, 1964), 43. Retrieved July 23, 2013 The following year, Kilmer included "Trees" in his collection Trees and Other Poems published by the George H. Doran Company.