Cherry blossom time
Posted by Mad Mitch on UTC 2016-04-25 07:21
A Shropshire Lad (1896)
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now, A. E. Housman (1859-1936)
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.
Unfortunately, at the time of posting this piece the cherries are indeed 'hung with snow' – real snow that is.
Perhaps a picture will help:
Carl Fredrik Hill (1849-1911), The Flowering Fruit Tree (Det blommande fruktträdet), 1877.
Yes, I know, I know – it's an apple tree not a cherry tree. Use your imagination.
It was sold at auction in 2010 for 9,200,000 SEK (1,007,600 EUR), almost double the estimated price.
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