Sunday Poetry: To See the Cherry Hung with Snow

By Emilie Richards | March 25, 2012 |

Welcome to Sunday Poetry.   If this is your first visit you can read about the purpose and inspiration of my Sunday poetry blogs here.

This is probably our last spring as residents of the Washington DC area, and I’ll confess that I’ll miss this season the most.  Spring in DC is a parade of blossoms, but this year, the show has been more like a fireworks display, a burst of color ending quickly, but oh, those glorious moments. 

Looking at this photo of my husband and me at the Tidal Basin a few years ago, I remember how cold the day was, and how windy, nothing like this year’s unusually warm weather.  Right now, and for the first time I can remember, everything seems to be blooming at once.  Dogwoods with daffodils are normally unheard of.  Cherry trees bloomed about two weeks earlier than predicted, and our neighbor’s tree is already dropping petals.  But what a sight to see our area garbed in its entire spring wardrobe,  like a lady who can’t decide which Easter dress or hat to wear, so she dons them all.

Today’s poem is in the public domain and I can print it here for you to enjoy.  I discovered this one at the Poetry Foundation website, and to learn more about the poet A.E. Housman, follow this link to that site. 

What do you want to view each year in whatever years are yours to enjoy?

A Shropshire Lad II: Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now

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
 
Remember there are no quizzes here, no right ways to read or contemplate the poem we share.  Absolutely no dissecting allowed.  Just come along for the “read.”  What line, word or thought will you carry with you this week?  If you’d like to tell us where the poem took you?  We’ll listen.
Posted in Poetry

2 Comments

  1. Lynn Ross - Toledo on March 25, 2012 at 11:23 pm

    I love poetry that rhymes! This was exceptional. Toledo is the same as you describe this spring – everything blooming at once and a splendid display.

    Reply
    • Emilie Richards on March 26, 2012 at 9:21 am

      I loved the images and the idea that we always need to appreciate the beauty in our lives and never take it for granted. Isn’t this an odd and wonderful spring?

      Reply

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