Music by Heather Percy and lyrics by Joyce Kilmer. Alfred Joyce Kilmer was an American poet who fought in France during the Great War. He was killed by a sniper’s bullet during the Second Battle of Marne in 1918. Kilmer’s poems have often been described as too sentimental, yet ‘Wartime Christmas’ truly captures both the futility of war as well as what Christmas is about – love and home. ‘Wartime Christmas’ is set for both unison choir and SA choir.