Editing Joyce Kilmer (section)

==="Trees"===
{{See also|Trees (poem)}}
[[File:Cover kilmer 1914 trees and other poems.jpg|thumb|right|The cover of Joyce Kilmer's ''Trees and Other Poems'', published in 1914]]

Joyce Kilmer's reputation as a poet is staked largely on the widespread popularity of one poem—[[Trees (poem)|"Trees"]] (1913). It was first published in the August 1913 issue of ''[[Poetry Magazine|Poetry: A Magazine of Verse]]'' which had begun publishing the year before in [[Chicago, Illinois]]<ref>Kilmer, Joyce. "Trees" in ''Poetry: A Magazine of Verse'', V. 2, (Chicago: Modern Poetry Association, August 1913), 160.</ref> and was included as the title poem in a collection of poems ''Trees and Other Poems'' (1914).<ref>Kilmer, Joyce. ''Trees and Other Poems''. (New York: Doubleday Doran and Co., 1914), 18.</ref> According to Kilmer's oldest son, Kenton, the poem was written on February 2, 1913, when the family resided in Mahwah, New Jersey.

{{blockquote|It was written in the afternoon in the intervals of some other writing. The desk was in an upstairs room, by a window looking down a wooded hill. It was written in a little notebook in which his father and mother wrote out copies of several of their poems, and, in most cases, added the date of composition. On one page the first two lines of 'Trees' appear, with the date, February 2, 1913, and on another page, further on in the book, is the full text of the poem. It was dedicated to his wife's mother, Mrs. Henry Mills Alden, who was endeared to all her family.<ref name="CorsonColl">Letter from Kenton Kilmer to Dorothy Colson in Grotto Sources file, Dorothy Corson Collection, University of Notre Dame (South Bend, Indiana).</ref>}}

Many locations including [[Rutgers University]] (where Kilmer attended for two years),<ref>[http://www.bikwil.com/Vintage04/What-Difference-Tree-Makes.html What a Difference a Tree Makes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060822071010/http://www.bikwil.com/Vintage04/What-Difference-Tree-Makes.html |date=August 22, 2006 }} citing Lax, Roer and Smith, Frederick. ''The Great Song Thesaurus''. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989). {{ISBN|0-19-505408-3}}. Retrieved December 25, 2006.</ref><ref>''[[The New York Times]]'', September 19, 1963. Of note, in an article reporting the demise of the "Kilmer Oak" is a quote that "Rutgers said it could not prove that Kilmer...had been inspired by the oak." which further confirms this attribution is unsubstantiated and its dissemination within the realm of rumor and urban (or in this case, provincial) legend.</ref> [[University of Notre Dame]],<ref>Corson, Dorothy V. ''A Cave of Candles: The Story behind the Notre Dame Grotto'', [http://www.nd.edu/~wcawley/corson/cors023.htm found online here] (Retrieved August 15, 2012).</ref> as well as historians in Mahwah, New Jersey and in other places,<ref>Curley, John. "End of Legend: Kilmer's Oak to Fall" ''The Free Lance-Star''. (September 17, 1963).</ref> have boasted that a specific tree was the inspiration for Kilmer's poem. However, Kenton Kilmer refutes these claims, remarking that, {{blockquote|Mother and I agreed, when we talked about it, that Dad never meant his poem to apply to one particular tree, or to the trees of any special region. Just any trees or all trees that might be rained on or snowed on, and that would be suitable nesting places for robins. I guess they'd have to have upward-reaching branches, too, for the line about 'lifting leafy arms to pray.' Rule out weeping willows."<ref name="CorsonColl" />}}

The popular appeal of this simple poem is likely the source of its endurance despite the continuing negative opinion of the poem's merits from scholars and critics. According to Robert Holliday, Kilmer's friend and editor, "Trees" speaks "with authentic song to the simplest of hearts" and that "(t)he exquisite title poem now so universally known, made his reputation more than all the rest he had written put together. That impeccable lyric which made for immediate widespread popularity."<ref>Holliday, Robert Cortes. "Memoir," in Joyce Kilmer, edited by Holliday (New York: Doran, 1918), I: 17–101.</ref> Its popularity has also led to parodies of the poem—some by noted poets and writers. The pattern of its first lines (''I think that I shall never see / A poem lovely as a tree.'') is of seemingly simple [[rhyme]] and [[Metre (poetry)|meter]] and easy to mimic along with the poem's choice of [[metaphor]]s. One of the best known parodies is "Song of the Open Road" by American humorist and poet [[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.''<ref>Nash, Ogden. "Song of the Open Road" first published in Argosy. Vol. 12 No. 8. (July 1951), 63.</ref>