Loveliest of Trees Literary Elements

The poem's speaker is a young man on the cusp of maturity.

Iambic tetrameter

Springs are used as a metaphor to refer to seasons when the cherry trees blossom.

Alliteration is in the line "Bloom and bough," in which "b" is repeated. There is also alliteration in the line, "woodland, wearing and white,” where “w” is used repeatedly.

The main irony is that the poem regrets wasting the first days he was born because he could not enjoy the blossoming of the cherry tree. However, the reader finds this paradoxical because an infant cannot recognize the transition of the cherry trees.

Lyric poem

Set in 1896 in the rural environs of Shropshire, England.

Optimistic, remorseful and re-energized

The protagonist is the speaker, a young man at the cusp of maturity. The antagonist is death.

There is a major conflict between the poet and the past. The poet blames the past for robbing him of his twenty productive years. The poet says he has 50 years remaining, but regrets the 20 years that have gone to waste.

The climax comes in the spring when the poet looks at the blossoming cherry tree in the woodlands.

The blooming of the cherry tree foreshadows the arrival of April.

There is an understatement when the poet says fifty springs are little room. This is an understatement because the remaining fifty years are more than the twenty years the poet has already lived in this world.

The poem alludes to Biblical calendar events signifying Easter celebrations.

"Spring" is used as a metonymy to refer to April.

The cherry tree is personified as a person wearing white clothes for Easter celebrations. In line four, the poet says, “Wearing white for Eastertide.”

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