One of the first retreatants was a World War-I soldier named Joyce Kilmer wrote a famous poem called “Trees” in 1913, after visiting there before he died in battle. Many students have learned this poem in English classes even today:
Trees
I THINK that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the sweet earth’s flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.