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Joyce Kilmer Quotes

1886–1918 United States

Alfred Joyce Kilmer (6 December 1886 – 30 July 1918) was an American journalist and poet.

United States
Journalists
Poets

Also known as: Kilmer, Joyce

Random Joyce Kilmer quote

37 quotes

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

The bugle echoes shrill and sweet,
But not of war it sings to-day.
The road is rhythmic with the feet
⁠Of men-at-arms who come to pray.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder;
Love is a poignant and accustomed pain.
It is a burst of Heaven-shaking thunder;
It is a linnet's fluting after rain.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

The song within your heart could never rise
Until love bade it spread its wings and soar.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

There is no strange and distant place
That is not gladdened by His face.
And every nation kneels to hail
The Splendour shining through Its veil.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

May we, their grateful children, learn
⁠Their strength, who lie beneath this sod,
Who went through fire and death to earn
⁠At last the accolade of God.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

Yes, God forgives and men forget,
And you're forgiven and forgotten.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

They shall not live who have not tasted death.
They only sing who are struck dumb by God.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

And when you think of love and fame
And all that might have come to pass,
Then don't you feel a little shame?
And don't you think you were an ass?

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

There is no rope can strangle song
And not for long death takes his toll.
No prison bars can dim the stars
Nor quicklime eat the living soul.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

It is stern work, it is perilous work, to thrust your hand in the sun
And pull out a spark of immortal flame to warm the hearts of men.

He is the lord of goodly things
That make the poor man's table gay,
Yet of his worth no minstrel sings
And on his tomb there is no bay.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

God be thanked for the Milky Way that runs across the sky,
That's the path that my feet would tread whenever I have to die.
Some folks call it a Silver Sword, and some a Pearly Crown,
But the only thing I think it is, is Main Street, Heaventown.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

All joys and passions that Mankind may know
By you were nobly felt and nobly sung.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

An iron hand has stilled the throats
That throbbed with loud and rhythmic glee
And dammed the flood of silver notes
That drenched the world in melody.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

They say that life is a highway and its milestones are the years,
And now and then there's a toll-gate where you buy your way with tears.
It's a rough road and a steep road and it stretches broad and far,
But at last it leads to a golden Town where golden Houses are.

Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

This man has home and child and wife
And battle set for every day.
This man has God and love and life;
These stand, all else shall pass away.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

And now deep in his weary heart
Are sacred flames that whitely burn.
He has of Heaven's grace a part
Who loves, who is beloved in turn.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

He bears a sword of flame but not to harm
The wakened life that feels his quickening sway
And barnyard voices shrilling "It is day!"
Take by his grace a new and alien charm.

Trees and Other Poems (1914)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Joyce Kilmer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.