Poem 1
Type of Work and Publication Background
......."Loveliest of Trees" is a lyric poem focusing on appreciating the beauty of nature
year-round. The London firm of Kegan Paul, Trench, Treubner & Company published it in 1896
as the second poem in A Shropshire Lad, a collection of sixty-three of Housman's poems.
Themes
Do It Now
.......You will not live forever. Therefore, make the most of the opportunities of the moment. For
example, if it is winter, do not sit indoors to await the springtime blooming of the loveliest of
trees, the cherry. Instead, seize the opportunity to view the trees now, when the trees blossom
with snow.
.......The Roman poet Horace (65-8 BC) popularized the idea of living for the moment in an ode
published in 23 BC. He wrote, "Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero." Loosely
translated, this sentence says, "Seize the day rather than placing your trust in the future." Over
the centuries, the words carpe diem, or seize the day, gained widespread currency among
poets and other writers as a term for urging readers to make the most of present
opportunities.
Warm Up to Winter
.......Implicit in the poem's meaning is that spring and its warm-weather cousin, summer, hold
no monopoly on beauty. In the fall, fields and forests blazon with color--the red of the apple,
the orange of the pumpkin, and the russet or gold of the leaf. In the winter, the landscape is a
work of art, with pendent icicles, frosted meadows, or drifting snow.
See the Beauty in People
.......One may interpret the cherry tree as a metaphor for children. In their innocence and purity,
they are like the white cherry blossoms, and are always delightful to observe and be around. In
this interpretation, summer represents young adulthood; autumn, middle age; and winter; old
age and death. Each age has its beauty--even old age, when the soul shines through the eyes
with the wisdom of accumulated experience.
Meter
.......The meter in the poem varies, but most of the lines are in iambic tetrameter. In this format,
each line has four pairs of syllables, the first syllable of each pair unstressed and the second
stressed, as in lines 2 and 3:
......1....................2.................3...................4
Is HUNG..|..with BLOOM..|..a LONG..|..the BOUGH
..........1..................2..................3................4
And STANDS..|..a BOUT..|..the WOOD..|..land RIDE
Several tetrameter lines in the poem place stress on the first syllable and thus are in trochaic
tetrameter. Line 4 is an example.
......1..................2.................3.............4
WEAR ing..|..WHITE for..|..EAST er..|..TIDE
You probably noticed that the fourth foot has only one syllable. The literary term used to
identify such a foot is catalexis, and the foot is called a catalectic foot. Another example of
trochaic tetrameter with a catalectic foot is line 6:
....1.................2................3............4
FIF ty..|..SPRINGS is..|..LIT tle..|..ROOM
End Rhyme
.......In each stanza the first line rhymes with the second, and the third line rhymes with the
fourth. Two successive rhyming lines make up what is called a couplet.
Summary
.......On a ride through the woods after Easter Sunday, the speaker observes a cherry tree with
its white blossoms. Noting that he is twenty years old, he estimates that about fifty years of his
life remain. A half-century is not really a long time, he says. Consequently, he will make the
most of the rest of his life, he says, by observing the cherry tree in winter--when snow clings to
its boughs--as well as spring.
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Loveliest of Trees
By A. E. Housman
Text and Notes
Loveliest of trees the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough
And stands about the woodland ride1
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now of my three score years and ten,2
twenty will not come again.
And take from seventy years a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom,3
Fifty Springs is little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Notes
1...woodland ride: The speaker is in a carriage or on
horseback.
2...three . . . ten: These words allude to a passage in the
Bible spoken by Moses: "The days of our years are
threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they
be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for
it is soon cut off, and we fly away" (Psalms 90:10). After the
publication of the Bible in English, the phrase threescore
years and ten gained widespread use in literary works and
ordinary conversation in references to the expected life span
of a man..
3..things in bloom: The speaker apparently plans to observe
more than cherry trees. He may even begin taking a closer
look at the beauty in relatives, friends,and other people. (See
Themes, Beauty in People.)
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Figures of Speech
.......Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem.
Alliteration
Line 2:.......bloom along the bough
Lines 3-4:..woodland ride / Wearing white
Lines 5-6:..years and ten, / twenty will not
Line 7:.......take from seventy
Line 8:.......only leaves me fifty
Line 9:.......to look at things in bloom
Line 11:....woodlands I will go
Line 12:....see the cherry hung with snow
Synecdoche
Line 6:.....Fifty Springs is little room
...............Springs represents years.
Metaphor/Personification
Lines 1, 2, 4: The cherry . . . is . . . wearing white for Eastertide.
....................Comparison of the tree to a person who has chosen to wear white for the Easter season
Poem2
Type of Work
.......“The Passionate Shepherd” is a pastoral poem. Pastoral poems generally center on the
love of a shepherd for a maiden (as in Marlowe’s poem), on the death of a friend, or on the
quiet simplicity of rural life. The writer of a pastoral poem may be an educated city dweller, like
Marlowe, who extolls the virtues of a shepherd girl or longs for the peace and quiet of the
country. Pastoral is derived from the Latin word pastor, meaning shepherd.
Setting
.......Chistopher Marlowe sets the poem in early spring in a rural locale (presumably in England)
where shepherds tend their flocks. The use of the word madrigals (line 8)—referring to poems
set to music and sung by two to six voices with a single melody or interweaving
melodies—suggests that the time is the sixteenth century, when madrigals were highly popular
in England and elsewhere in Europe. However, the poem could be about any shepherd of any
age in any country, for such is the universality of its theme.
Characters
The Passionate Shepherd: He importunes a woman—presumably a
young and pretty country girl—to become his sweetheart and enjoy with
him all the pleasures that nature has to offer.
The Shepherd’s Love: The young woman who receives the
Passionate Shepherd’s message.
Swains: Young country fellows whom the Passionate Shepherd promises will dance for his
beloved.
Theme
.......The theme of “The Passionate Shepherd” is the rapture of springtime love in a simple,
rural setting. Implicit in this theme is the motif of carpe diem—Latin for “seize the day.” Carpe
diem urges people to enjoy the moment without worrying about the future.
Writing and Publication Information
.......Marlowe wrote the poem in 1588 or 1589 while attending Cambridge University at its
Corpus Christi College. It first appeared in print in poetry collections published in 1599 and
1600.
Meter
.......The meter is iambic tetrameter, with eight syllables (four iambic feet) per line. (An iambic
foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.) The following graphic
presentation illustrates the meter of the first stanza.
........1................2...............3...............4
Come LIVE..|..with ME..|..and BE..|..my LOVE,
......1...............2...............3..................4
And WE..|..will ALL..|..the PLEA..|..sures PROVE
........1.................2..................3...................4
That HILLS..|..and VALL..|..eys, DALE..|..and FIELD,
......1..................2.................3.................4
And ALL..|..the CRAG..|..gy MOUNT..|..ains YIELD.
Rhyme
.......In each stanza, the first line rhymes with the second, and the third rhymes with the fourth.
Structure
.......The poem contains seven quatrains (four-line stanzas) for a total of twenty-eight lines.
Marlowe structures the poem as follows:
Stanza 1:......The shepherd asks the young lady to "live with me and be my love," noting that
they will enjoy all the pleasures of nature.
Stanzas 2-4: The shepherd makes promises that he hopes will persuade the young lady to
accept his proposal.
Stanzas 5-7: After making additional promises, the shepherd twice more asks the lady to "live
with me and be my love."
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The Passionate Shepherd to
His Love
By Christopher Marlowe
Come live with me and be my Love,
And we will all the pleasures prove1
That hills and valleys, dale and field,
And all the craggy mountains yield.
There will we sit upon the rocks.......................5
And see the shepherds feed their flocks,
By shallow rivers, to whose falls
Melodious birds sing madrigals.2
There will I make thee beds of roses
And a thousand fragrant posies,.......................10
A cap of flowers, and a kirtle3
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle.4
A gown made of the finest wool
Which from our pretty lambs we pull,
Fair linèd slippers for the cold,..........................15
With buckles of the purest gold.
A belt of straw and ivy buds
With coral5 clasps and amber6 studs:
And if these pleasures may thee move,
Come live with me and be my Love.....................20
Thy silver dishes for thy meat
As precious as the gods do eat,
Shall on an ivory table be
Prepared each day for thee and me.
The shepherd swains7 shall dance and sing.........25
For thy delight each May-morning:
If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me and be my Love.
Notes
1...prove: test, try out
2...madrigals: poems set to music and sung by two to six
voices with
.....a single melody or interweaving melodies
3...kirtle: dress or skirt
4...myrtle: shrub with evergreen leaves, white or pink
flowers, and dark
.....berries. In Greek mythology, a symbol of love.
5...coral: yellowish red;
6...amber: yellow or brownish yellow
7...swains: country youths.
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Figures of Speech
.......Following are examples of figures of speech in the poem.
Alliteration
Line 2: And we will all the pleasures prove
Line 5: There will we sit upon the rocks
Line 6: And see the shepherds feed their flocks
Line 8: Melodious birds sing madrigals.
Hyperbole
Lines 9-10: There will I make . . . / a thousand fragrant posies
Metaphor
Melodious birds sing madrigals
Comparison of birdsong to poems set to music (madrigals)
Images
.......Marlowe mixes images of objects made from nature (beds of roses, a cap of flowers, a
belt of straw with ivy buds) with images of man-made objects (gold buckles, silver dishes). His
beloved thus will receive the best of both worlds.
The Poem’s Enduring Appeal
.......Over the centuries, Marlowe’s little poem has enjoyed widespread popularity because it
captures the joy of simple, uncomplicated love. The shepherd does not worry whether his
status makes him acceptable to the girl; nor does he appear concerned about money or
education. The future will take carry of itself. What matters is the moment. So, he says, let us
enjoy it—sitting on a rock listening to the birds.
Poem3
Type of Work and Year of Publication
......."Go, Lovely Rose" is lyric poem with four quatrains (four-line stanzas) in which the
speaker addresses a rose he is sending to a young lady. It was first published in 1645 in
Poems, a collection of Waller's works. It is among the most famous and most admired short
poems in English literature.
Summary
.......Before sending a rose to a young lady, the speaker of the poem addresses the flower as if
it were a person. He instructs it to tell the lady that seeing a rose before her will make it clear
why the sender compares her to the flower, for she is just as sweet and fair as it is. The rose is
also instructed to tell her that she should not hide herself from public view, like a rose in a
desert, for no one will see and appreciate her beauty. She will eventually waste away and die
there, unappreciated. Instead, she should come forth and allow herself to be desired. She
need not blush when the speaker admires her.
.......Finally, the rose is to serve as a reminder of the young lady's mortality when it withers and
dies not long after she receives it. She will then know that her own life is also short and that
she ought to take advantage of the pleasures of life before time steals her youth and sends her
to her grave.
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Go, Lovely Rose
By Edmund Waller
Go, lovely Rose—
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
5
Tell her that's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.
Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.
Then die—that she
The common fate of all things rare
15
10
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!
20
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Themes
Carpe Diem (Seize the Day)
.......The speaker says the young lady wastes her time and his (line 2) by remaining aloof.
Before she realizes it, she will wither and die, like the rose that he is sending her. Therefore,
the speaker says, she should come out of hiding and reveal her beauty, like a blooming rose,
in order to take advantage of what life has to offer before youth passes her by.
.......The Roman poet Horace (65-8 BC) popularized the idea of living for the moment in an ode
published in 23 BC. He wrote, "Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero." Loosely
translated, this sentence says, "Seize the day rather than placing your trust in the future." Over
the centuries, the words carpe diem, or seize the day, gained widespread currency as a term
for categorizing any literary work whose primary purpose was to persuade readers to make the
most of the here and now. Although Edmund Waller does not use these Latin words in his
poem, he expresses a carpe diem theme.
Romance
.......The speaker obviously wants to court the young lady, who keeps to herself apparently
because she is shy or is indisposed for another reason. He compliments her by sending her a
rose intended to represent her beauty.
Persuasion
.......The poem is an exercise in persuasion, presenting sentiments intended to cajole the
young lady to emerge from hiding. For example, if she remains in confinement, the speaker
says, she will be like a rose that grows in a desert. No one will be able to appreciate her beauty.
"Small is the worth / Of beauty from the light retired," he says. In time, her beauty will fade, and
opportunities for a fulfilling life will have passed her by.
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Rhyme
The rhyme scheme of "Go, Lovely Rose" is ababb, as the first stanza demonstrates.
Go, lovely Rose—
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be.
Meter
.......The poem alternates between iambic dimeter and iambic tetrameter. Iambic dimeter is a
metric pattern with two pairs of syllables per line, the first syllable of each pair unstressed and
the second one stressed. A pair of syllables with this pattern is called an iamb. Iambic
tetrameter is a metric pattern with four pairs of syllables per line, all of them iambs. For further
information about iambic dimeter and iambic tetrameter, see Meter.
The following example demonstrates the metric pattern.
.......1...............2.......
Go, LOVE..|..ly.ROSE.......................................................iambic dimeter
......1...................2....................3...............4
Tell HER..|..that.WASTES..|..her.TIME..|..and.ME...............iambic tetrameter
.......1...............2.......
That NOW..|..she.KNOWS,...............................................iambic dimeter
......1.................2...............3............4
When I..|..re.SEM..|..ble.HER..|..to.THEE............................iambic tetrameter
......1.................2...............3............4
How SWEET..|..and.FAIR..|..she.SEEMS..|..to.BE...............iambic tetrameter
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Figures of Speech
.......Metaphor and personification are the controlling figures of speech in the poem.
.......A metaphor compares one thing to an unlike thing without using like, as, or than. In "Go,
Lovely Rose," the speaker compares the rose to a young lady he hopes to court.
Personification treats a thing as a human being. In the poem, the speaker turns the rose into a
person that will deliver a message to the young lady.
.......The poem also uses alliteration, as in the following examples:
lovely rose
now she knows
sweet and fair she seems to be
That hadst thou sprung
Suffer herself to be desired
That are so wondrous sweet and fair
The Meaning of Waste (Line 2)
.......In line 2, the speaker says the lady "wastes" her time and me. Waste can have two
meanings here: first, that the lady is foolishly throwing away an opportunity to form a
relationship with a worthy man; second, that the young lady's absence is causing the man to
pine for her. It seems likely that Waller had the second meaning in mind.
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