[New-Poetry] For the WEPD experiment: Houseman's Poem

[John Jeffrey]

Funny you should send this interpretation because that's the way I've always read the poem:  That the speaker, noting that there's not enough room to look at things in bloom in spring only, must also go about the woodlands in winter to look at the trees while they're hung with snow.  And, to respond to Bob, yes, the cherry may look no different from any other deciduous tree in winter, but it is.  Since it's a cherry tree hung with white it implies spring and the blooms.  Squint and it's spring!  Okay, bundle up and wear boots, and then squint and it's spring.  You could argue that it's a stretch, perhaps, but I don't think it's blatantly wrong.  The poem doesn't have any hard evidence against it.  It doesn't even mention boots.

John J







________________________________
From: Judy Prince <jbalizsprince at googlemail.com>
To: Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com>; "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &, Views" <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
Sent: Monday, February 2, 2009 8:20:20 PM
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] For the WEPD experiment: Houseman's Poem

We now have evaluations from Barry, me, Bob, and Finnegan on Housman's 'Loveliest of trees', and I wanted to let you all know more about Linda Sue Grimes' interpretation of the poem's 'message'.  I had read the following paragraph of Linda Sue's, thought it intriguing and came up with my interpretation sent in two days ago, as given further below.  Here's Linda Sue's paragraph, from April 1, 2007: 

"A.E. Housman's 'Loveliest of trees,' often misread as a carpe diem poem, actually offers a way to increase the enjoyment of beauty, not just grasp it for a while."

Today I read her article which the paragraph above introduces.  Here's a paragraph from the article that gets to the core of her interpretation: 

"In the third stanza, the speaker claims that because fifty more opportunities to enjoy these lovely trees with their luscious blossoms is not enough, he will go to observe the same trees also in winter, when they are 'hung with snow'.  That way the speaker doubles his opportunities to enjoy the cherry trees 'wearing white'." 

The entire brief article is a clear, logical argument for her interpretation which is well worth our serious consideration.  She and I find it the most logical of interpretations.  The poem itself is further below, and   here's the url for Linda Sue's article:  

http://poetry.suite101.com/article.cfm/housmans_loveliest_of_trees

Best,

Judy





2009/1/31 Judy Prince <jbalizsprince at googlemail.com>

OK, here goes my paraphrase and then my evaluation of AEHousman's Loveliest of Trees:

PARAPHRASE:

The cherry, most beautiful of all trees,
is covered with white blossoms now as if celebrating Easter.

Twenty of my [Biblically-promised] seventy years are spent,
so I'll only see fifty more springs---
not enough time to enjoy blooming things;

hence I'll walk these woods in the winters, as well,
to see the cherry boughs hung with snow.

EVALUATION according to Bob's WEPD checklist:

1)  Importance:  Agreeing with Linda Sue Grimes, I feel it's not exactly a carpe diem poem.  I think it tells us to expect and to look for beauty even in the starkest times.  Not an insignificant observation.

2)  Clear, uncliched devices/forms:  I'd give it a ZERO for rockinghorse cliches, rhythms, rhymes.  

3)  Word economy:  Pore H, he flails around, esp in the 2nd stanza, trying to squish and wiggle his slender meanings into a rhyming.  Was this the first poem he ever wrote?

4)  Impressive, uncommon diction or imagery:  ZERO.

Not an Excellent poem.  Not a Good poem.  Maybe a sweet practice poem that has a significant message put in impoverishedly poetic form [like this sentence].

Judy considering Barry's forthput banana poem next


2009/1/31 Robin Hamilton <robin.hamilton2 at btinternet.com>


Oops -- my bad.  There's no indentation of any lines in the original, as my previous transcription seemed to imply.

R.

              II


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.

A. E. Housman 


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