Skip to content

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.

— Joyce Kilmer Main Street and Other Poems (1917)

Another quote →

More quotes by Joyce Kilmer

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)

All Joyce Kilmer quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Joyce Kilmer (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.