Joyce Kilmer
Wealth - Poem by Joyce Kilmer
(For Aline)
From what old ballad, or from what rich frame
Did you descend to glorify the earth?
Was it from Chaucer's singing book you came?
Or did Watteau's small brushes give you birth?
Nothing so exquisite as that slight hand
Could Raphael or Leonardo trace.
Nor could the poets know in Fairyland
The changing wonder of your lyric face.
I would possess a host of lovely things,
But I am poor and such joys may not be.
So God who lifts the poor and humbles kings
Sent loveliness itself to dwell with me.
Read this poem in other languages
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem »

Read poems about / on: ballad, lyric, birth, god, joy, change
Joyce Kilmer's Other Poems
Famous Poems
-
Phenomenal Woman
Maya Angelou
-
Still I Rise
Maya Angelou
-
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
-
If You Forget Me
Pablo Neruda
-
Dreams
Langston Hughes
-
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
-
Caged Bird
Maya Angelou
-
If
Rudyard Kipling
-
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
-
A Dream Within A Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
would possess a host of lovely things,
But I am poor and such joys may not be.
So God who lifts the poor and humbles kings
Sent loveliness itself to dwell with me.
Wealth isn't everything. If riches would have befallen Kilmer, he would have graciously embraced. But the poet understood that, possibly, such fortune for him would never be.
Nonetheless, Kilmer seemed to have understood life and its true riches, which are fairness, humility, and contentedness. Good for him. A lovely piece here, with a grand-life lesson. (Report) Reply