Ed. Note: November 2018 marks 100 years since the end of World War I. The San Diego Reader will devote this month’s poetry columns to the poets who wrote about their experiences of that war.
Rouge Bouquet
Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) was an American poet best known for his poem “Trees.” While not officially considered one of the War Poets of World War I, Kilmer served and died in World War I. He was considered a leading Roman Catholic poet and writer, often compared to G.K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc in his wit and expansive knowledge. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet in the Second Battle of the Marne. He wrote “Rouge Bouquet” shortly before his death, in honor of the fallen during a German artillery bombardment of an American position in the Rouge Bouquet forest near Baccarat, France, on March 7, 1918. At several points in the poem, the rhythm imitates that of the elegiac bugle piece “Taps,” traditionally played at a soldier’s funeral.
Ed. Note: November 2018 marks 100 years since the end of World War I. The San Diego Reader will devote this month’s poetry columns to the poets who wrote about their experiences of that war.
Rouge Bouquet
Joyce Kilmer (1886-1918) was an American poet best known for his poem “Trees.” While not officially considered one of the War Poets of World War I, Kilmer served and died in World War I. He was considered a leading Roman Catholic poet and writer, often compared to G.K. Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc in his wit and expansive knowledge. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet in the Second Battle of the Marne. He wrote “Rouge Bouquet” shortly before his death, in honor of the fallen during a German artillery bombardment of an American position in the Rouge Bouquet forest near Baccarat, France, on March 7, 1918. At several points in the poem, the rhythm imitates that of the elegiac bugle piece “Taps,” traditionally played at a soldier’s funeral.
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