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Lyric Poem · Nature

Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now

by A. E. Housman · 1896

1Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

2Is hung with bloom along the bough,

3And stands about the woodland ride

4Wearing white for Eastertide.

5Now, of my threescore years and ten,

6Twenty will not come again,

7And take from seventy springs a score,

8It only leaves me fifty more.

9And since to look at things in bloom

10Fifty springs are little room,

11About the woodlands I will go

12To see the cherry hung with snow.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

“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.
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

Want the rules this form is measured against? Read what makes a lyric poem, or run your own draft through the form checker to see the same measurements on your lines. How we measure · Report a mistake

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.
Jurisdiction-specific, never a worldwide claimRights policyReport a text or rights issue
Lyric PoemShort PoemsNatureSpringLife

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