Across the street at the hospital, I saw the first blooming cherry tree of the year. Brave thing to put its blossoms out on such a chilly day.

A Shropshire Lad, 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

(Happy Easter.)

***

Ralph Vaughan Williams set a number of Houseman's poems to music in his cycle On Wenlock Edge. Though the above is not included here, found this recording interesting for the historical context it gives.