Transcriber’s Note: Italics are enclosed in _underscores_. JOYCE KILMER POEMS, ESSAYS AND LETTERS IN TWO VOLUMES VOLUME ONE: MEMOIR AND POEMS [Illustration: © _Underwood and Underwood_ JOYCE KILMER, AGE 30 LAST CIVILIAN PORTRAIT] JOYCE KILMER EDITED WITH A MEMOIR BY ROBERT CORTES HOLLIDAY VOLUME ONE MEMOIR AND POEMS NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Copyright, 1914, 1917, 1918 By George H. Doran Company PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE MEMORY OF JOYCE KILMER ACKNOWLEDGMENT Many persons have contributed exceedingly valuable service to the preparation of these volumes. Credit has been gratefully acknowledged, wherever feasible, in the course of the text. To make anything like a full record, however, of the names of that remarkable society, the ardent and devoted friends of Joyce Kilmer, would require a chapter. Though particular reference should be made in this place to the invaluable assistance of: Kilmer’s life-long friend and lawyer, Louis Bevier, Jr.; his especial friend, Thomas Walsh; and his office associate, John Bunker. Permission has been most cordially granted by the editors of the following magazines for the reprinting of the poems from France: _Scribner’s Magazine_, _Good Housekeeping_, _The Saturday Evening Post_, _America_, and _The Bookman_. Essays and miscellaneous pieces have been gathered, with the warm approval of the editors of these publications, from these sources: _The Bookman_, _The New York Times Sunday Magazine_, _The Bellman_, _The Catholic World_, _Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, he Smart Set_, _Munsey’s Magazine_ and _Puck_--a curiously assorted company, highly expressive of the catholicity of the mind these pages reflect. The article on Hilaire Belloc, originally one of Kilmer’s lectures, was first printed in the American edition of Belloc’s “Verses.” The early poems have been chosen from Kilmer’s first book, “A Summer of Love,” now out of print, rights to which are held by Mrs. Aline Kilmer. Poems not otherwise credited have been reprinted from the volumes already published by George H. Doran Company. R. C. H. New York, 1918. CONTENTS VOLUME ONE PAGE MEMOIR 17 POEMS FROM FRANCE ROUGE BOUQUET 105 THE PEACEMAKER 108 PRAYER OF A SOLDIER IN FRANCE 109 WHEN THE SIXTY-NINTH COMES BACK 110 MIRAGE DU CANTONMENT 113 POEMS AT HOME WARTIME CHRISTMAS 117