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9 unusual facts about Joyce Kilmer


Broken Van

"I Think I Shall Never See..." was originally titled "I Think That I Shall Never See...", a quote from Joyce Kilmer's poem "Trees", when it was originally released on Big City Life.

Columbia University traditions

Beginning in 1986, the Philolexian Society has hosted this open-to-the-public event in honor of Alfred Joyce Kilmer (Class of 1908), vice president of the society and the author of "Trees."

Fère-en-Tardenois

It contains the graves of 6,012 American soldiers who died while fighting in this vicinity during World War I including the poet, Joyce Kilmer and, until 1987, Eddie Slovik, a deserter and the first American soldier to be executed for desertion since the American Civil War.

Joyce Kilmer Memorial Bad Poetry Contest

The event is named for "bad" poet (and Philolexian alumnus) Joyce Kilmer.

Joyce Kilmer-Slickrock Wilderness

The Babcock Lumber Company logged roughly two-thirds of the Slickrock Creek watershed before the construction of Calderwood Dam in 1922 flooded the company's railroad access and put an end to logging operations in the area.

Kirby Wright

Kirby Wright won first place in a recital competition for his reading of "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer and also won awards for his original poems.

Montague, Massachusetts

Montague has claimed to be the location of a maple tree that inspired poet Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) to write the popular 1913 poem "Trees", however family accounts and documents establish the poem was written in Mahwah, New Jersey.

Richard Hageman

Christmas Eve, A Joyful Song (Joyce Kilmer), Galaxy, 1936 (arranged for mixed chorus by Philip James, Galaxy, 1937)

Swanzey, New Hampshire

Because he vacationed in Swanzey during several summers, the town has claimed to be the location of a tree that inspired poet Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918) to write the popular 1913 poem "Trees".


Acephalous line

It is a technique employed often in the concluding lines of hymn texts, and has been employed in poetry to change tone or announce a conclusion, including its use in Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" and A.E. Housman's "To an Athlete Dying Young." Robert Wallace argues in his Meter in English that the term acephalous line seems "pejorative", as if criticising the poet's violation of scansion, but this view is not widely held among critics.

Michael Earls

Over the course of his life, he was frequently drawn to leading literary figures and counted among his friends and correspondents Louise Imogen Guiney, Joyce Kilmer, and G. K. Chesterton.


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