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Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now
A. E. Houseman
About A. E. Houseman
A.E. Houseman (1859-1936) was a scholar and a poet. There are 63 poems in the collection of poetry called A Shropshire Lad that Housman published in 1896. Many of them, like this one, convey the messege that we should 'sieze the day' and live our lives fully because life is short. In this poem the narrator is 20 years old and sees a beautiful cherry tree while he is out for a ride. He realizes that he only has 50 years left in his life and vows to admire beauty in all seasons.
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.
Available Answers
- 1.
What is the narrator's opinion of cherry trees?
- 2.
What season is it in the first stanza? Try to give two pieces of evidence to support your answer.
- 3.
In the second stanza, which two lines tell us that the narrator expects to Iive for seventy years?
- 4.
In the last stanza the poet mentions two seasons. What are they?
- 5.
Which phrase has the poet used that means the same as there isn't much space and time?
- 6.
"Twenty will not come again"
a. Explain what this line means in your own words.
b. What does the narrator decide to do (in the last two lines)?
c. Why does he want to do that?