Lyric Poem · Nature
Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now
by A. E. Housman · 1896
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.
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“Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now” by A. E. Housman — quilloak.com/poems/loveliest-of-trees
Quick facts
- Poem
- Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now
- Poet
- A. E. Housman
- Published
- 1896
- Length
- 12 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem, Short Poems
- Themes
- Nature, Spring, Life
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 12 lines · 3 quatrains
- End rhyme
- AABB in 67% of the stanzas — couplets. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
- Line length
- Lines run 7-9 syllables (median 8), consistent with tetrameter. No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- A. E. Housman1859–1936
- Source record
- WikisourceLoveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now by a-e-housman, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1896
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 b4444e91fe97add6…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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