Poem No. 3 - Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now - Summary

"Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now"

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. 

Theme

This poem "Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now" is about the beauties of nature which the poet represent by the cherry tree. The poem thus celebrates the beauties of nature in all seasons, as well as quietly lamenting the inevitable passing of youth to death for all living things. He feels he has really not enough time to appreciate this beauty, because, like all living things, he is destined to die. Using the theme of the beauty of the natural world, the poet is expressing the view that we should seize every opportunity to experience life in all its beauty. This is an optimistic poem despite a reference to the shortness of man’s tenure in the world. The poem's briefness, short lines, and simplicity remind us that life is short; they urge us to speed. The beautiful cherry tree stands out along the woodland path when it is blooming white in springtime. He is twenty years old and can expect to live for more fifty years to be seventy. He only have about fifty years left in my life, he will look at nature’s beauty in all seasons.
The strongest image in the first stanza is that of early spring. Housman draws a picture of a countryside path lined with blossoming cherry trees. This image is a reference to youth and beginnings. The cherry tree represents the beauty of nature and spring. His expected age is threescore years and ten- or seventy years. The reference to spring is given as if spring here stands for a full year. In the last line, cherry blossom hung with snow is a double metaphor, a reference to both real snow in winter and to white cherry blossoms that look like snow in spring.

Paraphrase and Explanation

The first stanza gives a simple description of the cherry tree in all its spring-time natural beauty, which the poet sees in the wood. It is described as 'wearing white for Eastertide,' as if it too, like humans, is celebrating a religious festival which means it is in the season of spring. The trees are wearing their white cherry blossoms as part of their yearly life cycle. They're wearing white cherry blossoms in the spring, as contrasted with the white snow of winter that they also may wear in winter season. 

In the second stanza, the mood changes and the focus shifts from the tree to the poet himself, as he falls to musing on the inevitability of death. Casting up the sum of his years, he estimates that he has about fifty years left to live, as he is already twenty/ So again there are religious overtones here, although now tinged with melancholy at the thought of death, and, significantly, despite the religious references, the poet does not seem to particularly believe in life after death.  Each season has its own kind of glory. The autumn has the leaves; the winter its snow; the summer its flowers; and the spring its green. The final stanza expresses the poet's feeling that fifty more years are still a short life to appreciate the beauties of nature. Therefore he decides that he will come to look at the cherry tree not only when it is in full bloom, but also in the dead of winter when it is 'hung with snow'

In the third stanza, Housman uses things in bloom to represent all of life and woodlands to represent the world, just as hung with bloom in the first stanza represents spring and the beginning of life.  Woodlands represent inner life, not just the outer world. I will go to see the cherry hung with snow encourages us to search for beauty everywhere and in every moment of life, not only in nature, and not only when we're young.