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Loveliest of Trees

by A. E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.

Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.

And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.

 

 


Theophile Henri Mayan

Title:

Loveliest of Trees

Poet:

Housman, A. E.

Year of Publication:

1896

Age Appropriate:

11-12

Subject:

Living things

Form:

Quatrain

Stanza:

3

Type:

Description

Lines:

12

Meter:

Ordinary ballad rhythm

Rhyme:

Couplets

Literary Period:

Modern

Things to Discuss:

What is the message the poet is sending? The tree is a metaphor of? Would any tree fit? Why do you think the poet chose the cherry tree?

About the Poem:

The thought is simply a description plus a metaphor.

About the Poet:

Housman was born in 1859. He attended St.John's College at Oxford. He had hoped for first-class honors but failed in that regard. To support himself he got a minor job in the civil service.