loveliest of trees by a.e. housman

Loveliest of Trees

Loveliest of Trees

A.E. Housman

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now Is hung with bloom along the bough,

-speakerbegins by talking about the loveliest of trees. For him, that's a cherry tree.-The speaker isn't describing just any old cherry tree, however, but one that is now blooming.

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And stands about the woodland ride Wearing white for Eastertide.

Personification- Obviously trees don't "wear" clothes the same way people do, so this is a textbook case ofAlliteration-purity, cleanliness, innocencethat type of stuff.-"Eastertide" is a word used in the Christian calendar , a reference toJesus Christ. -The reference to Eastertide thus tells an idea of rebirth, but it also makes us think of things like death and sacrifice.

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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.

He's imagining that he will reach the old age of 70. So, he guesses that he will live to be seventy. He also knows that his current age ("twenty"20 years old) will never come again.He only got 50 more years to enjoy the beauty and brevity of the time he will have to enjoy that beauty.4

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.

-50 years -here phrased as "springs"an example ofsynechdoche-50 years isn't enough time to look at things in bloom.-This whole idea of making the most of things while we still have time left to do -"Do the most you can, because you never know when you might day. Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today, because tomorrow may never come5

Loveliest of Trees

A.E. Housman