Rouge Bouquet (poem)
"Rouge Bouquet" or "The Wood Called Rouge Bouquet" is a lyric poem written in 1918 by American poet, essayist, critic and soldier Joyce Kilmer. The poem commemorates during an intense German artillery bombardment of an American trench position in the Rouge Bouquet wood near the French village of Baccarat on 7 March 1918 that resulted in the loss of 19 American soldiers with the 165th Infantry Regiment, 42nd Rainbow Division. Kilmer was a sergeant in the New York National Guard's "The Fighting 69th Regiment" which was part of the 165th Infantry Regiment involved in the attack. Kilmer composed the poem immediately after the bombardment, and it was first read over their graves in March 1918. The poem was first published in the 16 August 1918 issue of "Stars and Stripes", two weeks after Kilmer's death in battle on 30 July 1918 during the Second Battle of the Marne. The poem was read over Kilmer's own grave when he was interred in France. To this day, it is a tradition of the Fighting 69th to read the poem at memorial services for fallen members of the regiment.
The reader will notice that at several points the words fall into the rhythm of "Taps".The poem
