Excerpt from The Loyola University Magazine, Vol. 18: November, 1920 Again, to Father Daly, S. J., he declares: I don't want in any way to make money out of my religion, to seem to be a 'professional Catholic.' I have real message to Catholics, I have Catholicism's message to modern pagans. But though he believed his message was for the modern pagan, he appeals with greater intensity to Catholic hearts, who better understand the spirit of Christian joy and hope that dominates even the saddest of his songs. There are emotions so ble, as those to which devout souls are admitted in communion with their Maker. When to those moods the true poetic gift is added the best that poetry can do reveals itself in words. To Joyce Kilmer was given the great gift and daily communion with His Maker and from them resulted his songs breathing hope and love. Human life in its varied phases was the theme of most of his poems; yet he viewed life as on the threshold of an invisible world which threw a divine glow on incidents the most commonplace and gave them a divine quality. The rapturous worship of the grandeur of God which Kilmer praised in Father Gerard Hopkins may be found in certain of his own poems - eloquently in Memorial Day in the lines: May we, their grateful children learnTheir strength, who lie beneath this sod, Who went through fire and death to earnAt last the accolade of God. And in the Rosary in the lines When on their beads our Mother's children pray, Immortal music charms the grateful sky. he pictures the effect of the sweetest of Catholic prayers. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art techlogy to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
