Analysis of Wartime Christmas

Joyce Kilmer 1886 (New Brunswick) – 1918 (Seringes-et-Nesles)



WARTIME CHRISTMAS by Joyce Kilmer

Led by a star, a golden star,
The youngest star, an olden star,
Here the kings and the shepherds are,
Akneeling on the ground.
What did they come to the inn to see?
God in the Highest, and this is He,
A baby asleep on His mother’s knee
And with her kisses crowned.

Now is the earth a dreary place,
A troubled place, a weary place.
Peace has hidden her lovely face
And turned in tears away.
Yet the sun, through the war-cloud, sees
Babies asleep on their mother’s knees.
While there are love and home—and these—
There shall be Christmas Day.


Scheme X AAABCCCB DDDEFFFE
Poetic Form
Metre 1101110 11010101 01011101 10100101 1101 111110111 100100111 0100111101 010101 11010101 01010101 11100101 010101 10110111 100111101 11110101 111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 566
Words 107
Sentences 7
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 1, 8, 8
Lines Amount 17
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 148
Words per stanza (avg) 36

About this poem

Found "Wartime Christmas" online but no background information. My mother loved Kilmer's poems but was not familiar with this one.

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Written on -000

Submitted by realtorshirleyz on October 17, 2021

Modified on April 03, 2023

32 sec read
269

Joyce Kilmer

Joyce Kilmer was an American writer and poet mainly remembered for a short poem titled "Trees", which was published in the collection Trees and Other Poems in 1914. more…

All Joyce Kilmer poems | Joyce Kilmer Books

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