Have you ever heard/read the poem “Trees”? It’s a short poem by Joyce Kilmer. Although very popular, “Trees” is often dismissed as simple, dated, sentimental, and sappy. This poem has underwhelmed on such a grand scale that Columbia University (Wilmer’s alma mater) holds the annual Alfred Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest. I’m no literary scholar, but I think “Trees” gets a bad rap. For one thing, the timing of Kilmer’s work toward the beginning of the twentieth century predates the modernist movement by barely a decade. To judge Kilmer against poets like TS Elliot and Ezra Pound, is like judging 90’s climbers for wearing SKIDZ. It’s not their fault that Prana and Lululemon didn’t exist yet.
Now I’m not saying “Trees” is a masterpiece. Even when considered apart from the modernist tradition, it still reads more like a religious nursery rhyme than a poem deserving of in-depth analysis by every high school sophomore on the planet.
Independent of whether or not “Trees” is deserving of poetic blame or praise, there is no question that the opening stanza is remarkably memorable!
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.
I was around ten years old the first time I heard “Trees,” and I remember the circumstances vividly. My mom (a nurse) was working in some director capacity for a nursing home. Often, this would be my landing spot between the time school got out and the time my mom got off work.
Hanging around a nursing home was a fantastic educational experience for a ten-year-old kid. Exposure to death, loneliness, and Alzheimer’s, all in addition to the rich personal histories of people who would invite you into their room to show of their secret stash of sugar packets. This was the ultimate lesson in what the far end of life’s spectrum could look like. It also taught me that when the old guy in the red and brown robe was out, it’s best to look in the opposite direction because he didn’t wear underwear, and his robe was rarely closed.
Most of the residents were very happy to have a young person around. Residents would often mistake me for their son, or grandson, or childhood friend, this in turn would lead to me sitting and reminiscing about events that I had no part in. Some personalities really stood out, like the lady who may have been married to a mob boss and loved to cook for her sons. There was the lady who thought she was a newborn baby, and of course the man with his penis hanging out of the red and brown robe. There was also Mary, I think her name was Mary, but for all I know it could have been Rose or Agnes or Edith, but we’ll go with Mary. Mary was a retired schoolteacher who spoke in a way that left no doubt about her command of proper communication. She was very kind with a perceived clarity of her situation. From what I remember, Mary dressed as well as she articulated. With a wealth of knowledge, she would sometimes recite poetry from memory. Her most memorable citation was “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer.
The way Mary recited that poem with such confidence, her crackling voice and perfect annunciation made “Trees” seem like it was wisest combination of words ever assembled. It must have been another five or six years before I heard that poem again, and despite thinking it was markedly worse than I remembered, that first line still struck a chord.
I love being out in nature, I love being surrounded by trees, Joyce Wilmer’s intentions and reputation notwithstanding that first line of “Trees” carries value. It may be downhill from there, the poem may be simple, dated, sentimental, and sappy, but it’s rare that I pay close aesthetic attention to any part of nature without being reminded of Wilmer’s poem as recited by my elderly acquaintance, Mary (at least I think her name was Mary).
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.
Is it a good poem or not? You decide.
thedihedral.com 
Oh what a gorgeous piece. Thank you for the history. I am moved to tears by this piece. God talks about trees clapping. Just wait till we get to heaven and talk to them. They are wondrous creatures indeed. Thank you for this gift this morning. 🤗 virtual hugs, Joni
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Of course Joni! I am just really happy that you enjoyed it! Thank you! -Carrot
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I loved it. ❤️❤️ Thank you Carrot
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Love your nursing home story . Not sure why you’re so down on the poem . As a tree-hugger and a God lover, I think the poem is just fine. 😊 There was a power by a trail running blogger this week that expressed her love of the trees she regularly passes on her runs . I could relate to it very well . The blog is called Be Short, Run Ultra.
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That should be post , not power. I wish we could edit our comments!
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I’ll go check out the blog post ASAP. It sounds like the perfect compliment to this one! Thank you! I actually like this poem too.
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I think that if Kilmer had ended the poem after the famous first 2 lines, it would have retained it’s power and beauty. It’s essentially a beautiful haiku at that point.
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I think that must be true Bob!
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It is indeed a classic and one I recall from my school years….way back. Obviously it meant the world to Mary and was her gateway to her past. Cheers. Allan
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It really is a classic Allan, great perspective on Mary!
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Esoteric literary merits aside, I like this poem because I love trees. I would also like to think that you being exposed to the “…far end of life’s spectrum…” at a early age made you a better person.
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I am on the same page as you! Great thoughts, thank you!
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This is a great post! I didn’t have an opinion about the poem Trees before this post but because of it, I will now always remember it fondly! Beautiful!
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That is so nice, thank you Wynne!
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That bit of “good” vs ” great” vs “mediocre” poetry has all but killed poetry for people in general. Back in my mom’s day kids memorized long poems at school, complicated pieces like Bryant’s “Thanatopsis.” My grandfather — beginning the first day of December — began reading “Snowbound” to his 9 kids every single year. I can’t take a walk out there this month without hearing my mom’s voice (a good voice this time) saying, “The sun that brief December day, rose cheerless over hills of gray.” The determination of good poetry is total bullshit for bloodless academics sitting in campus pubs staring at grad students (female) bending over the pool table to get a good shot.
Believe me, I KNOW.
My thesis advisor was a really fine scholar of American literature. You’d probably love his Thoreau biography, “Thoreau, a Life of the Mind.” But I remember one day walking back to the English Department Office with him and his fans were all around asking deep questions about some deep American poet and he said, straight, “People didn’t read this. People read other things. For one, they loved Robert Service.”
Some groupie goes, “Oh! Robert Service! I’ve never heard of him!”
My relationship with that marvelous man began that afternoon, a lifelong friendship, opened with my chirping into the cold Colorado air, “There are strange things done in the midnight sun but the men who moil for gold. The arctic trails have their secret tales, that will…”
And he said, “make your blood run cold. The Northern Lights have seen queer sights, but the queerest they ever did see, was the night on the marge of Lake LeBarge” and in unison we said, “I cremated Sam McGee.”
So the big question is “What’s a poem for?” Some artist serve nature. Some serve the public. Some serve some theory and to understand it, a person has to look at their world.” For me a good poem is one that I can never, ever, ever forget and that makes my world and vision larger, that holds within it a particular human sensibility and adds to mine. There is also a matter of personal taste. Critics try to be arbiters of that but fuck it. They can’t. My beliefs, experience, yearnings can’t be changed by Prufrock. But this did it.
I caught this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!
No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,
Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.
And you know, as a climber, that it’s only “sheer plod” that carries you safely up a pitch. AND this is a fantastic depiction of a raptor hunting. I see it all the time. I hear this in my mind when I see it. Is Hopkins great poetry? Anyway, this poem might be as lovely as a tree. I know a bunch more that are right up there with trees and trees are a high standard for poetry.
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So of course, I quote a really obscure grad-school kind of poem on my post today. 😀 “Foolish consistency” etc.
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Haha…perfect timing!
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Martha, the moment the idea for this post came to me I was hoping that you would be able to comment on it, and you did not disappoint. I have to say that your description of bloodless academics in pubs starring at grad students is so unbelievably spot on. The details should be listed in the About page or the FAQ page department websites.
Thank you or sharing your memories, experiences, thoughts, and pieces of poetry.
This is was perfect!
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Grad school was surreal. I barely made it out. When I turned in my thesis for approval by one of those very bloodless academics he said “You really did it. It isn’t even bad.” He made me reprint one page and he signed it. Basically, I got thrown out but was “allowed” to submit a thesis if I wrote one. Not my milieu…
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It also reminded me of Robin Williams’ character in “Dead Poets Society” reading someone’s algorithm for judging the quality of a poem. As his students dutifully scribbled notes, he stopped and told them to rip those pages out of the book, then passed the trash can around the room.
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Great call…I really need to watch that film again. What a powerful scene!
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‘I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree.’
It’s a good poem that I remember. Thank you 😊
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Of course…It is memorable for sure!
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Yes. It is…. You are welcome
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I went to Joyce Kilmer School in Chicago (a public grade school), and either the first or the final two lines of “Trees,” I forget which, are painted in German-looking gold script on green above the school’s small auditorium stage.
I always thought I should have a knowledgeable opinion about poetry (as an English major), but no… at some point I thought, if I like it, it’s good. Even if it’s a sentimental poem, or pop lyrics.
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What? That is so cool! I love your perspective…If I like it, it’s good!
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Fabulous! just like the photo! Thank you. love, a tree hugger lol
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Tree Huggers have to stick together! Thanks for the comment!
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Mad Magazine once parodied Kilmer’s poem with “I think that I shall never see/A billboard lovely as a tree/And if the billboards do not fall/I’ll never see a tree at all.”
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Haha…that is great! Whatever happened to Mad Magazine?
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I love your memory of the older people you met when you were younger! I find Kilmer’s poem, “Meh”. I love trees, but the “praise to God” aspects of it turn me off. Maybe I should write bawdy poems about trees. Hmm, there’s a thought. You know how they like to spread themselves around and catching all us other living creatures in the funk. The audacity! An ode to allergies…
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HAHA…I vote yes to that! Trees are like a wolf in sheep’s clothing! That would be a really funny new poetry genre. The beast behind the beauty written in rhyme!
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You asked me to decide. Did that long ago. You did not ask me to share my opinion. That was your intention, but I’m not gonna do it. Good to learn the background you provide. Good post, good read.
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Thank you for the praise, and even more so for the lesson on stating clear intentions HAHA!
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Tried to comment earlier, but apparently I wasn’t logged in, so I don’t think it went through. Of course feel free to delete if this is a duplicate. Below is the gist of what I tried to say…
I loved this. And I loved the comment about the professors at the campus bar. I am not a very social person, so I never attended those odd gatherings at professors’ houses, but I did always wonder what happened at them.
I love only two poems: Desiderata, which was given to me by my 12th grade English teacher, and the one about the plums and the icebox. Years ago, when I told my 9th grade students that the plums poem was my favorite, they said, That’s your favorite poem?!
As for Desiderata, I used to keep a handwritten (by me) copy of it in my nightstand, but after I moved recently, it got lost. Just the other day, I saw the poem quoted in a book I was reading. “Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.” Those. Those are my favorite poetry words.
Thank you for the post and for the opportunity to share. Sorry if this was a duplicate!
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Suzanne, I feel like your students are really lucky to have you as their teacher! I have a few LIT friends who can toss all these poems and lines from poems around in common conversation, and I am always so impressed by that. I can barely speak my own words sometimes. I enjoy poetry, but ultimately am a total ignorant when it comes to the depth and analysis.
I feel bad that you lost your handwritten poem…maybe that is an opportunity to write it out again?
Thank you very much for sharing, and I don’t think you missed anything by missing the professors gatherings!
All the best!
-Carrot
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Sorry, but I can’t help it, since I quoted Mad Magazine before. The National Lampoon once parodied “Desiderata” with “Deteriorata”. The line you cited was parodied as “Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
And remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.”
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I am a nature lover as well, and no doubt this poem will go through my mind the next time I’m paddling down a stream shaded by trees.
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YES Susan!!! This is a great comment to have read, thank you!
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I LOVE the poem, but I love trees and the “language” they “speak” to me 😉 IF they COULD speak, what a tale they might tell!!!!!
Thanks for sharing this tree pic and the poem, as well as your thoughts in this post!
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Oh wow, thank you for this comment annj49! I like your imagery of the language of trees, it has my wheels turning just thinking about it!
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Cool!
You might like this little blog I once did then….
https://annofgg.com/2015/10/08/once-upon-a-log/
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Enjoyed reading this
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Thank you Hiraganas Nasir!
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The poem is part of a nice childhood memory, that makes it good. Sometimes the first impression is the one worth keeping.
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Well put Joanne, thank you!
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Your welcome
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Great one!👌
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Thank you!
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beautiful poem every word like a pearl
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Great description Kiran!
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What a beautiful piece. “Tree” is absolutely charming.
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Thanks for this. I concur with those that say that the poem is not of the best quality, since its structure seems rather facile and bland of image. Yet its concept, its central thrust is I think very important and a view badly needed at this time in particular, with deforestation nearly everywhere and ongoing in most remaining reserves and unfixed carbon abounding in the atmosphere.
I am an atheist but the phrase “only God can make a tree” is a powerful one to me, replacing “God” with “Nature”. Trees are great to see, to feel, to climb, to sit under and to harvest carefully and great also is the life they sustain, both directly and indirectly.
The memoir of the nursing home was great too, thanks.
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Thank you for such a thought out comment, I really like the idea that “God” is a place holder, that is a great thought! Much appreciated!
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I love this post on trees, very telling but it’s a post you can relax and read.
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That is very kind Raymond, thank you!
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It was my mom’s favorite poem and always makes me smile. It may be too simplistic for some but the entire poem is a prayer. It’s a reverent moment in nature.
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My mom too Kathy!!!
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What a heart-warming (and funny) post. I think it’s great that you got to hang out at the nursing home when you were a kid and I can see why the poem holds special memories for you. Being a tree-lover, I think the poem is right on.
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Thank you for this beautiful comment!
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Enjoyed the post as well as all posted comments. From Trail Running to Dead Poet’s society, you have some thoughtful and quality responses. And I hear you re the nursery rhyme feel but if we’re judging a poem on the strength of the imagery, hard to argue that this isn’t a beauty!
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What a great way to put! Thank you!
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Your essay and the people in it came alive in my head. In 9th grade we had to make a collection of ten poems or so that we liked. We had to illustrate the poems and answer questions about them. “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer was one of the poems that made the cut into my book of ten. I still like the poem and I enjoyed reading it again in your essay. I also like the poet Robert Service!
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What a sweet compliment, thank you for sharing expressing your thoughts. They are really reinforcing, and I appreciate it! Happy new year to you and cheers to finding more great poetry in 2022!
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Insightful and thought-provoking analysis. Great piece!
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More than the poem, your experiences which actually are touching for me personally.
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That is such a nice comment Tanish, thank you!
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I enjoyed the poem. I agree with the commenter that they could have stopped at the first two lines. Do I think it’s an amazing piece of art that everyone should know because it’s a masterpiece? No. But I definitely think it’s good because I feel it accomplished it’s goal which was delivering the message that we cannot ever create something as brilliant as a tree.
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It has a certain ‘ethos’. It is sublime, rather powerful in its evocation of an intense feeling or moment of awe. In its simplicity and unfeigned imagery it has ‘power.’ Beautiful.
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That is really well put! I think you’re right it’s power does seem to come from its simplicity. Good call, thank you!
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I happen to love that poem, it is simple conjures up images on each line. Lke the photo too 🙂
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Thanks for the thoughts Judy…I was impressed with how the photo seems to fit the poem too!
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Reblogged this on via laterale and commented:
The title drew me in. Thinking about my tree in Cologne (Germany) I could lie on his mighty trunk, observing the dance of the leaves. He broke during a thunderstorm, Broke but not dead, From the stub of the tree little twitches in uncountable number cheered about the fact that they no longer needed to travel all the way up the trunk to catch sunlight
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I must say that the poem isn’t something that strikes you at the first read and only subsequent reads reveal the layers, however simple, they may be. There are stories that are left for the reader to imagine, the family of robins, the snow during winter months, stories that aren’t direct but left to the imaginative reader to ponder and think of. It may have a similar simplicity like the poem ‘Leisure’, a poem which is ingrained in my heart and head. And I think, much like you, it arises from the circumstance-in your case the narration by Mary left an impact and in my case my teacher from primary school who made the poem her own with her deep emotions! Therein, a poem, a prose, an essay may not strike the same chord with everybody for our perceptions keep differing and the circumstance in which they were read, written leaves an impact for life.
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This is beautiful. I’ll never consider this poem the same way again! And like you, I love those first two lines. Those are the lines I remember.
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Thank you Aunt Jim, this is a very nice message to read. I am so happy that you enjoyed the post!
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I will ever remember “Trees” now, thank you for sharing such a beautiful piece of reflection on the magnificence of God’s creation!
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I am happy that you dug it Patrick!!! Thank you for this comment!
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I enjoyed reading this post. And I could relate to the nursing home scene as I have worked with the elderly in facilities.
I cannot say the poem is bad because from what I read even though my interpretation could be different from the writer’s vision it is nice. To me it reflects nature and the position a tree is put in, what it goes through, how it adapts, what it becomes, and the character that grows from the tree’s experience.
So I feel it all depends on how an individual’s own perspective highlights the poem.
I think the poem is truly wonderful because I envision my own imagery upon reading the words just like when we read a book and imagine from the ideas that come to us but when we see a movie made from that book it sometimes spoils and overrides our original way of seeing things unless we think what we created in our thoughts were better.
So just like a lot of things we go with what appeals to us from our own viewpoint. We all have different tastes and different ways of seeing things but that doesn’t necessarily make something good or bad.
But again, I think the poem is good, and a great dedication to one tree’s life. Too bad the poem did not express a piece about the tragedy of how a tree gets knocked down in a hurricane!
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Thank you for all the depth you provide here, I agree with everything you wrote, I especially like the importance of what we bring to a poem, story, or book. The words are just the beginning, filling in the details is up to us!
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