Wartime Christmas

Summary


"Wartime Christmas" by Joyce Kilmer finds Christmas meaning not in celebration but in quiet, defiant hope during wartime. The poem opens with kings and shepherds kneeling before the Christ child, then shifts to a war-darkened world where Peace has turned away in tears. Against that bleak backdrop, Kilmer holds up one enduring image — babies asleep on their mothers' knees — as proof that Christmas cannot be extinguished, even when the earth grows weary and the sun struggles through war-clouds.

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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.

A young mother cradles her sleeping baby by candlelight in "Wartime Christmas" by Joyce Kilmer.

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.

Credits

Joyce Kilmer was an American poet best known for his 1913 poem "Trees," though he wrote prolifically on themes of faith, nature, and humanity. Kilmer served in World War I and was killed in action in 1918, giving "Wartime Christmas" a deeply personal and poignant context — he wrote it knowing the reality of the conflict firsthand.