PTSW : About the woodlands I will go...

The beautiful blossoms of the Pocket Trail (see below)
remind me of this favorite poem. The cultivated cherries are resplendant right now (as above). The native cherries will break out cheering a little later. I ran Housman's little declaration in a post a year ago, but it won't hurt you to see it again!

Loveliest of Trees

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 three score 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

For all the old geezers visiting The Limb I'll append the updated version by Margaret Haskins Durber, the poet laureate of Lake Wobegon. Garrison Keillor included it in comments on his column in October 2005.

Loveliest of Trees, Now

Loveliest of trees, the maple now
Is turning yellow on the bough.
It stands among the trees of green,
All dressed up for Halloween.

Now of my three score years and ten,
Sixty-three won't come again.
Subtract from seventy, sixty-three,
It scares the daylights out of me.

And since to look at things sublime,
Seven years is not much time.
It’s rather sobering for a fellow
To see the maples turning yellow.

-Margaret Haskins Durber

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The series of posts, A Poem to Start the Week, is my little anthology of poetry, most of which I have used with my students in elementary schools during 27 years of teaching.

Previous Poems to Start the Week:
Flax-Golden Tales
The Dinosaurs Are Not All Dead
Owl Pellets
Mummy Slept Late
Just My Size
The Kindest Things I Know
Miles to Go
Love that Brother
Oh, Frabjous Day!

Other Posts about Children's Literature:

The Lion's Paw top kid's OOP book!
Harry
Aslan is Dead!
Multiplying People, Rice, and Readers
A Teacher's Life

You can read some of my own efforts at poetry here.

A weblog dedicated to Poetry for Children.
Watch Sonja Cole's reviews of children's books at Bookwink.com.