A.E. Housman

Loveliest of Trees

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 three score 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.

ride: a road intended for horseback travel.

When I Was One-and –Twenty

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard a wise man say,

“Give crowns and pounds and guineas,

But not your heart away;

Give pearls away and rubies

But keep your fancy free.”

But I was one-and-twenty,

No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty

I heard him say again,

“the heart out of the bosom

Was never given in vain;

‘Tis paid with sighs a plenty

And sold for endless rue.”

And I am two-and-twenty,

And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true.

1. How old is the speaker of “Loveliest of Trees”?

2. Why is it particularly appropriate for him to look at the cherry trees at this time?

3. What do you think the snow in the last line might symbolize?

4. What has the young man of “When I was One-and-Twenty” learned in a year?

5. What do you think has happened to him?

6. Housman has a reputation for being able to compress much meaning into a few lines of poetry. Do you think this poem bears out his reputation? Explain.

“Loveliest of Trees”

“When I Was One-and-Twenty”

Journal

1. What do you miss most about your childhood?

2. What do you think you are going to miss most after you graduate from high school?

3. Do your parents or teachers ever give you advice about what you should be doing in your teenage years? Explain.

4. Do you think this is good advice? Why or why not?

5. Copy one line from either of the poems that strikes you as particularly true. Explain how it relates to your life.