“Loveliest of Trees” by A. E. Housman TPCASTT
TPCASTT: Poem Analysis Method: title, paraphrase, connotation, diction, attitude, tone, shift(s), title
revisited and theme
Title
of poem means
Paraphrase
parts of the
Poem
“Loveliest of Trees”: The author thinks that the seasonal cherry tree is the loveliest of
all the other trees.
The loveliest of trees, the cherry tree hangs with flowers along the branch. It stands
along the background and is the color white.
Of the seventy years he has to live, he came to enjoy the cherry tree at age 20, so he has
50 years left. 50 years, however, does not seem enough to admire the cherry tree.
Because 50 springs are not enough to look at things in bloom, he will go to the
woodlands to see the cherries hung from snow.
Connotation
of some of the
words –
changing
literal meaning
to implied or
associated
values
White: the cherry trees are described as being white in color. The color white has
connotations of purity and youth, and so the cherry tree can come to represent young
age and the beauty of nature.
Loveliest, bloom: Both of these words can be associated with spring and growth. The
imagery presented is white cherry trees lining the countryside in the spring.
Attitude
What is the
attitude of the
author,
characters or
yourself?
The author’s attitude in this poem is one of admiration or consternation, and even regret.
The speaker admires the cherry trees in the first stanza when he sees them lining the
countryside in the spring. They are comforting images to him and represent youth and
the beauty of nature. He feels, however, that the fifty years he has left in his life is not
enough to admire these cherry trees. The speaker regrets that twenty years of his life
(one score) have been wasted with no remembrance or appreciation of the trees.
Shift
At first we think
or feel one way
– then there is a
shift: identify
the shifts and
explain them
In the first stanza, the cherry trees are depicted and it is the imagery of the white trees
which is emphasized. In the next stanza, however, the focus is on the aging speaker, and
how he has lost twenty years, a time in which he did not appreciate the trees. The last
stanza represents the final shift, because the speaker determines that he only has fifty
years left, and so resolves to go see the cherry trees “hung with snow” in the winter.
This is a direct contrast to the line “hung with bloom” in the first stanza, which
references spring time.
Title revisited
Any new
insights on
meaning or
significance of
title?
Theme
“Loveliest of Trees” can come to mean that the speaker has realized that he does not
have much time left in life, and thus will watch the cherry trees even in the winter
because it truly is the loveliest of trees.
The theme of the poem is that time is precious and not much is left, so it should be used
efficiently, just as the speaker decides to appreciate his favorite tree in all seasons.
Although he has fifty years left, the speaker thinks that it is not enough and will go to
see the tree even when it is “hung with snow.” This can also be interpreted as meaning
that if a true appreciation exists for something, it is recognizable in any form.
Poem Analysis (Voice Thread) Script:
The poem “Loveliest of Trees” by A. E. Housman explores the idea of appreciation of
nature and carpe diem, or living life to the fullest. The speaker of the poem reflects on his past
life in relation to the cherry trees around him in the countryside. In the first stanza, the author
uses the word “loveliest” to show his admiration for this specific type of tree. The tree is “hung
with bloom along the bough,” emphasizing that the speaker revels in the beauty of the cherry tree
during the spring time. Diction such as “white” and “Eastertide” are also used to represent the
purity and beauty of the trees, and the author’s association of the cherry trees with his youth. The
personification of “wearing white” links the author’s relative naivety with the blooming trees.
Just as the cherry trees undergo a seasonal change from spring to winter, the speaker goes on in
the next stanza to lament his aging.
In the second stanza, the author says “of my three score years and ten,” meaning seventy
years, as an allusion to the age allotted to man in the Bible. This means that he expects to live
seventy years, but has already lived 20 of those years. As a result, he only has fifty more years to
enjoy the cherry trees. In this stanza, the word “springs” is a form of synecdoche, with spring
representing a full year.
In the last stanza, the speaker remarks that fifty years is not enough to “looks at things in
bloom,” and because of this, he will go into the woodlands “to see the cherry hung with snow.”
With this, the speaker presents a regretful tone and manifests his true devotion to the cherry tree,
and the fact that he thinks fifty years will not be enough for him to marvel at them. He goes to
see the cherry tree in the winter, in contrast to spring, showing his true appreciation of the tree in
all forms. This brings about the theme that life should be lived to the fullest, or the idea of carpe
diem, because time is limited when it comes to enjoying the loveliest of things. Also, another
theme of the work is that true appreciation stems from the ability to acknowledge beauty of
nature in all forms, just as the speaker finds the cherry trees beautiful in the spring and winter.