Joyce Kilmer

He was named Alfred Joyce Kilmer after two priests at Christ Church in New Brunswick: Alfred R. Taylor, the curate; and the Rev. Dr. Elisha Brooks Joyce (1857–1926), the rector.

Christ Church is the oldest Episcopal parish in New Brunswick and the Kilmer family were parishioners.

At the time of his deployment to Europe during World War I, Kilmer was considered the leading American Catholic poet and lecturer of his generation, whom critics often compared to British contemporaries G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) and Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953).

Rector Joyce, who served the parish from 1883 to 1916, baptised the young Kilmer, who remained an Episcopalian until his 1913 conversion to Catholicism.

Alfred Joyce Kilmer (December 6, 1886 – July 30, 1918) was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees" (1913), which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914.

Though a prolific poet whose works celebrated the common beauty of the natural world as well as his Catholic faith, Kilmer was also a journalist, literary critic, lecturer, and editor.

Kilmer was born December 6, 1886, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, the fourth and youngest child, of Annie Ellen Kilburn (1849–1932), a minor writer and composer, and Dr. Frederick Barnett Kilmer (1851–1934), a physician and analytical chemist employed by the Johnson and Johnson Company and inventor of the company's baby powder.

Kilmer's birthplace in New Brunswick, where the Kilmer family lived from 1886 to 1892, is still standing and houses a small museum to Kilmer, as well as a few Middlesex County government offices.

Kilmer entered Rutgers College Grammar School (now Rutgers Preparatory School) in 1895 at the age of 8.

During his years at the Grammar School, Kilmer was editor-in-chief of the school's paper, the Argo, and loved the classics but had difficulty with Greek.

He won the first Lane Classical Prize, for oratory, and obtained a scholarship to Rutgers College which he would attend the following year.

Despite his difficulties with Greek and mathematics, he stood at the head of his class in preparatory school.

After graduating from Rutgers College Grammar School in 1904, he continued his education at Rutgers College (now Rutgers University) from 1904 to 1906.

At Rutgers, Kilmer was associate editor of the Targum, the campus newspaper, and a member of the Delta Upsilon fraternity.

However, he was unable to complete the curriculum's rigorous mathematics requirement and was asked to repeat his sophomore year.

Under pressure from his mother, Kilmer transferred to Columbia University in New York City.

At Columbia, Kilmer was vice-president of the Philolexian Society (a literary society), associate editor of Columbia Spectator (the campus newspaper), and member of the Debating Union.

He completed his Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree and graduated from Columbia on May 23, 1908.

Shortly after graduation, on June 9, 1908, he married Aline Murray (1888–1941), a fellow poet to whom he had been engaged since his sophomore year at Rutgers.

In the autumn of 1908, Kilmer was employed teaching Latin at Morristown High School in Morristown, New Jersey.

At this time, he began to submit essays to Red Cross Notes (including his first published piece, an essay on the "Psychology of Advertising") and his early poems to literary periodicals.

Kilmer also wrote book reviews for The Literary Digest, Town & Country, The Nation, and The New York Times.

The Kilmers had five children: Kenton Sinclair Kilmer (1909–1995); Rose Kilburn Kilmer (1912–1917); Deborah Clanton Kilmer (1914–1999), who became a nun ("Sister Michael") at the Saint Benedict Monastery, St. Joseph, Minnesota; Michael Barry Kilmer (1916–1927); and Christopher Kilmer (1917–1984).

By June 1909, Kilmer had abandoned any aspirations to continue teaching and relocated to New York City, where he focused solely on developing a career as a writer.

From 1909 to 1912, Kilmer was employed by Funk and Wagnalls, which was preparing an edition of The Standard Dictionary that would be published in 1912.

According to Hillis, Kilmer's job "was to define ordinary words assigned to him at five cents for each word defined. This was a job at which one would ordinarily earn ten to twelve dollars a week, but Kilmer attacked the task with such vigor and speed that it was soon thought wisest to put him on a regular salary."

In 1911, Kilmer's first book of verse was published, entitled Summer of Love. Kilmer later wrote, "some of the poems in it, those inspired by genuine love, are not things of which to be ashamed, and you, understanding, would not be offended by the others."

In 1912, Kilmer became a special writer for the New York Times Review of Books and the New York Times Sunday Magazine and was often engaged in lecturing.

He moved to Mahwah, New Jersey, where he resided until his service and death in World War I.

By this time he had become established as a published poet and as a popular lecturer.

According to Robert Holliday, Kilmer "frequently neglected to make any preparation for his speeches, not even choosing a subject until the beginning of the dinner which was to culminate in a specimen of his oratory. His constant research for the dictionary, and, later on, for his New York Times articles, must have given him a store of knowledge at his fingertips to be produced at a moment's notice for these emergencies."

When the Kilmers' daughter Rose (1912–1917) was stricken with poliomyelitis (also known as infantile paralysis) shortly after birth, they turned to their religious faith for comfort.

A series of correspondence between Kilmer and Fr. James J. Daly led the Kilmers to convert to Catholicism, and they were received in the church in 1913.

In one of these letters, Kilmer writes that he "believed in the Catholic position, the Catholic view of ethics and aesthetics, for a long time," and he "wanted something not intellectual, some conviction not mental – in fact I wanted Faith."

He enlisted in the New York National Guard and was deployed to France with the 69th Infantry Regiment (the famous "Fighting 69th") in 1917.

He was killed by a sniper's bullet at the Second Battle of the Marne in 1918 at the age of 31.

He was married to Aline Murray, also an accomplished poet and author, with whom he had five children.

While most of his works are largely unknown today, a select few of his poems remain popular and are published frequently in anthologies.

Several critics—including both Kilmer's contemporaries and modern scholars—have dismissed Kilmer's work as being too simple and overly sentimental, and suggested that his style was far too traditional, even archaic.

Many writers, including notably Ogden Nash, have parodied Kilmer's work and style—as attested by the many imitations of "Trees".