Alfred Joyce Kilmer (1886 – 1918) was an American journalist, poet, literary critic, lecturer, and editor. Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his religious faith, Kilmer is remembered most for a short poem entitled “Trees” (1913), which was published in in 1914. At the time of his deployment to Europe during the first World War (1914–1918), Kilmer was considered the leading American Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, A sergeant in a U.S. Infantry Regiment, Kilmer was killed at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.
The text stated below is the original written by 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.
There have been several variations on the text, including many parody texts substituted to mimic Kilmer’s seemingly simple rhyme and meter, and questioning the poem’s choice of metaphors.[37] Of the often repeated parodies, one of the most known is “Song of the Open Road” by Ogden Nash (1902–1971):
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree.
Indeed, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.[38]
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