Why this poem is famous (and often dismissed)

Published in 1913, 'Trees' became one of the most anthologized American poems—and one of the most mocked by critics. The mockery misses the point. Kilmer isn't trying to be subtle or complex. He's making a direct argument: human creativity is inferior to divine creation. This is a theological statement dressed as nature poetry.

The poem's strategy is to use personification not as ornament but as proof. By describing the tree in human terms—hungry mouth, praying arms, intimate relationship with rain—Kilmer argues that trees already do what poets try to do (express something meaningful), and they do it better because they're doing God's work, not human work. The final couplet isn't humble; it's logical. If the tree is superior, and only God makes trees, then the poet making poems is necessarily 'a fool.'

Kilmer's context and the poem's real audience

[CONTEXT: Kilmer was a devout Catholic convert writing for a mass audience in 1913, not for literary magazines.] The poem appeared in *The Youth's Companion*, a family magazine with millions of readers. Kilmer wasn't writing for critics; he was writing for people who would read it once, remember it, and recite it to their children.

This explains why the poem works so well as propaganda for a particular worldview—nature as evidence of God's superiority over human ambition. Each stanza offers a specific proof: the tree feeds itself, prays constantly, nurtures other creatures, endures weather. These aren't poetic flourishes; they're functional examples. The poem's famous last line isn't a confession of inadequacy; it's the payoff. By the time you reach it, you've already agreed: trees are remarkable, and only God could make something so complete.

Joyce Kilmer

Trees

(For Mrs. Henry Mills Alden)

I THINK that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

Personification strategy

The tree is given human anatomy—mouth, breast, arms, hair, bosom. This isn't decoration; it's the poem's entire argument. By making the tree human, Kilmer can claim it does what humans do (pray, nurture), but better.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

Religious observation

The tree 'looks at God all day'—a constant attention humans can't sustain. Combined with 'leafy arms to pray,' this positions trees as naturally spiritual beings, not metaphorically but functionally.

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Passive endurance

Snow 'has lain' on the tree; rain 'intimately' touches it. The tree doesn't resist or change these things—it simply receives them. This acceptance is part of what makes it superior to human-made poems.

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

The closing reversal

'Fools like me' isn't false modesty—it's the logical conclusion of the argument. If only God makes trees, and trees are superior to poems, then the poet who makes poems is by definition inferior to God's creation.

But only God can make a tree.

Source