A.E. Housman pinpoints mortality’s problem and the solution in twelve lines.
He describes the grief and joy of aging in twelve lines in his classic poem “Loveliest of Trees.” (#2 from A Shropshire Lad)
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.
If I feel sadness about aging, it’s Housman’s sadness: that I’ll only get so many more chances to see the cherries blossom, to laugh with friends at an annual conference, to conduct Stand By Me at the Aces Concert. But of course, Housman has the right answer to that wistfulness, too. “About the woodlands I will go” – I’ll use today to experience the things I love. And tomorrow, too.
I know too many young people who carry neither Housman’s wistfulness nor his intentionality; they trudge through life without reflecting on it. The sooner we can awaken to Housman’s way of seeing, the more beautiful our life will be.
Reading a poem is great; reciting it aloud is better. But maybe the best is to hear a really excellent setting of the poem in musical form. Here’s my favorite setting of “Loveliest of Trees,” by Jeremy Fox.