In 1917 Kilmer joined the Officers' Reserve Training Corps, but he soon resigned from this. In less than three weeks after America entered the world war, he enlisted as a private in the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, New York. On July 28, 1918, the five-day battle for the mastery of the heights beyond the river Ourcq was begun. Two days later, Sergeant Kilmer was killed in action. Death came before the poet had developed or even matured his gifts. His first volume, Summer of Love (1911), is wholly imitative; it is full of reflections of a dozen other sources, "a broken bundle of mirrors." Trees and Other Poems (1914) contains the title-poem by which Kilmer is best known and, though various influences are here, a refreshing candor lights up the lines. Main Street and Other Poems (1917) is less derivative; the simplicity is less self-conscious, the ecstasy more spontaneous. TREES' I think that I shall never see A tree whose hungry mouth is prest A tree that looks at God all day, A tree that may in summer wear Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Poems are made by fools like me, 'From Trees and Other Poems by Joyce Kilmer. Copyright, 1914, by George H. Doran Company, Publishers. MARTIN 1 When I am tired of earnest men, Or counting metal discs forever, Still on his delicate pale face A quizzical thin smile is showing, He wears a brilliant-hued cravat, A suit to match his soft gray hair, A rakish stick, a knowing hat, A manner blithe and debonair. How good, that he who always knew Should have gold halls to wander through How like his old unselfish way To leave those halls of splendid mirth Some people ask: What cruel chance 'From Trees and Other Poems by Joyce Kilmer. Copyright, 1914, by George H. Doran Company, Publishers. A fleck of sunlight in the street, A horse, a book, a girl who smiled,— Because it was old Martin's lot To be, not make, a decoration, Pile laurel wreaths upon his grave Orrick Johns Orrick Johns was born at St. Louis, Missouri, in 1887. He schooled himself to be an advertising copy writer, his creative work being kept as an avocation. Asphalt and Other Poems (1917) is a queer mixture. Cheap stanzas crowd against lines of singular beauty. The same peculiarity is evident in Black Branches (1920), where much that is strained and artificial mingles with poetry that is not only spontaneous but searching. At his best, notably in the refreshing "Country Rhymes," Johns is a true and poignant singer. THE INTERPRETER In the very early morning when the light was low Like snow in the springtime on a sunny hill, And we were only frightened and can't think still. We can't think quite that the katydids and frogs And the other living things that she spoke for to us But of ecstasy and longing she too knew much . . . Alan Seeger Alan Seeger was born in New York, June 22, 1888. When he was still a baby, his parents moved to Staten Island, where he remained through boyhood. Later, there were several other migrations, including a sojourn in Mexico, where Seeger spent the most impressionable years of his youth. In 1906, he entered Harvard. 1914 came, and the European war had not entered its third week when, along with some forty of his fellow-countrymen, Seeger enlisted in the Foreign Legion of France. He was in action almost continually, serving on various fronts. On the fourth of July, 1916, ordered to take the village of Belloy-enSanterre, Seeger advanced in the first rush with his squad which was practically wiped out by hidden machine-gun fire. Seeger fell, mortally wounded, and died the next morning. Seeger's literary promise was far greater than his poetic accomplishment. With the exception of his one famous poem, there is little of importance, though much of charm, in his collected Poems (published, with an Introduction by William Archer, in 1916). "I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH"' I have a rendezvous with Death At some disputed barricade, When Spring comes back with rustling shade 1 From Poems by Alan Seeger. Copyright, 1916, by Charles Scribner's Sons. By permission of the publishers. And apple-blossoms fill the air- When Spring brings back blue days and fair. And lead me into his dark land And close my eyes and quench my breath— I have a rendezvous with Death On some scarred slope of battered hill, God knows 'twere better to be deep Margaret Widdemer Margaret Widdemer was born at Doylestown, Pennsylvania, and began writing in her childhood. After graduating from Drexel Institute Library School in 1909, she contributed to various magazines. Miss Widdemer's poetic work has two distinct phases. In the one mood, she is the protesting poet, the champion of the down-trodden, the lyricist on fire with angry passion. In the other, she is the writer of well-made, polite and popular sentimental verse. Her finest poems are in Factories with Other Lyrics (1915), although several of her best songs are in The |