JOyce Kilmer Old Poets

Joyce Kilmer uses many different methods to draw the audience to his poem “Old Poets“. He compares people with trees, uses many different types of sounds and also utilizes a rhyme scheme. Kilmer entices the reader by using common trees as symbols, he makes the poem visually appealing and ends the poem with a peaceful thought. Without fancy words, or long stanzas he creates a likable poem for both listeners, and readers.

Several settings and situations should be considered when hearing this poem because there is no one setting or situation for this work. Perhaps the setting is a place where the speaker just stops to reflect or the speaker may be in a majestic forest looking at trees. The speaker also could in the middle of a crowd of noisy young poets and be tired of being bombarded by noise from loud young people. It is unclear exactly where the speaker is when reciting this poem, nevertheless the unknown setting does not distract the listener at all. Using imagination the audience can go from the forest in the beginning of the poem to the majestic thrown of God at the end of this poem (33) easily or be thrown into a large group of yapping young poets. Kilmer the poem’s author was kill

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They would shuffle in of an evening,

Each one to his cushioned seat,

And there would be mellow talking

And silence rich and sweet.

For these young flippertigibbets

A-rhyming their hours away

They won't be still like honest men

And listen to what you say. In contrast the speaker tells of the insignificance of both the sapling and young poets, never joining the two but surmising that neither serve a worthy purpose until they have grown to full maturity. Nine sets of four lines each or nine stanzas create a visual tree on the page. An example of this would be in lines 2 and 4.

The visual appearance of Kilmer’s poem is noticeable. We hear other alliteration (including consonance) in lines 1-3 with the l sounds in “live,” “sleep,” and “saplings.

They should sit in a great hall drinking

Red wine and golden beer. The listener understands the triviality of the young when hearing the word flippertygibbet, so the word accomplishes it‘s goal of describing frivolity without using a harsher word. ed in WWI so this poem was written before his death in 1918, but there is no reference to a date.

There is no peace to be taken

With poets who are young,

For they worry about the wars to be fought

And the songs that must be sung. Use of these sound techniques gives this poem a resonance pattern that falls nicely on the ear.

Approximate Word count = 2033
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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