Joyce Kilmer

Chapter 36: THE SINGING GIRL (For the Rev. Edward F. Garesché, S.J.)

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About This Book

A biographical memoir accompanies a wide selection of poems, essays, and letters that together trace the author’s life, friendships, and artistic growth. The poems alternate between nature and devotional themes, domestic observations, and wartime and memorial pieces composed both abroad and at home. Essays and correspondence reveal literary preferences, personal affections, and religious sensibilities, while photographs and facsimiles supplement the personal record. The collection balances lyrical short poems with occasional longer pieces and critical or biographical sketches, offering a compact portrait of a poet engaged with faith, ordinary life, and the moral and emotional stakes of his historical moment.

THE SINGING GIRL
(For the Rev. Edward F. Garesché, S.J.)

There was a little maiden

In blue and silver drest,

She sang to God in Heaven

And God within her breast.

It flooded me with pleasure,

It pierced me like a sword,

When this young maiden sang: “My soul

Doth magnify the Lord.”

The stars sing all together

And hear the angels sing,

But they said they had never heard

So beautiful a thing.

Saint Mary and Saint Joseph,

And Saint Elizabeth,

Pray for us poets now

And at the hour of death.