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.
Joyce Kilmer
“Trees”
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