Spring Closer To Our Deaths example essay topic

"Loveliest of Trees"Loveliest of Trees" deals with the subject of life, particularly the inevitability of death. The speaker realizes he will not always be a youth. He sees each spring as one more spring closer to the inevitable, death. The diction is mostly simple, but the poem gains an air of ease from this.

The ballad-like quality makes it seem as if it is merely a sad song of death. There are many instances of symbolism as well in this poem, using simple words that convey a darker meaning. The speaker is innocent, and oblivious to death in the first stanza. But by the second stanza, the poem begins to become darker. The speaker realizes how short his life really is.

The third stanza is the most bleak, when the speaker views what life he has left as too "little room" to live. "Loveliest of Trees" through diction, rhyme, and symbolism, paints a bleak picture for life as the speaker views each day as another closer to death. The speaker in the first stanza is innocent. He views spring in a good light, speaking of the "Loveliest of trees, the cherry now / Is hung with bloom along the bough". The tree is seen as lovely, but this feeling of spring will change fast. The blossoms represent youth, and exuberance.

But blossoms are also frail and weak, and share that with life, which does not last forever and fades fast. "Wearing white for the Eastertide" is a reference to Easter, which is during the spring, and represents the rebirth of Jesus Christ. But in the story of Jesus, Jesus dies before he rises to heaven, and in this theme of death, the author realizes that this spring just means he is one spring closer to death. White is also a symbol of innocence, which the speaker loses in the second stanza. "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". The speaker realizes that he will probably live until about seventy years, and since he is twenty, it leaves him with only fifty more years to live.

He also states that "twenty will not come again", showing that he understands he is mortal, and his youth is escaping from him. The third stanza has a feeling of desperation, and the naivety of childhood and youth is now gone. "And since to look at things in bloom / Fifty springs are little room" show what little time, in his mind at least, he has left. Now he can only "see the cherry hung with snow", where snow represents winter, and winter death. Everything in winter appears dead, but in the spring it becomes reborn.

This reiterates the concept of "Eastertide" and the rebirth of Christ. This could mean that he has faith he will go to heaven and be reborn, but from it I get a sense that he is being ironic. The seasons change year to year from the cold dark death of winter to the lively spring, and from that death to life. But he views his life as only having fifty years left, and does not mention that he himself will be reborn.

Rather, he seems to be mocking the Christian religion in the view that ones soul can be reborn. To Housman, it seems as if this idea is lost on him. Ending using the word "snow" also alludes to the fact that death is our end. There is nothing said after this euphemism for death because it seems that Housman feels there is nothing else after death.

Housman uses language and symbolism to convey his thoughts of life and death. The rhyming scheme gives "Loveliest of Tress" a ballad-like quality. The poem does not lose its darker meaning through the use of the ballad-like rhyme. This poem has a melancholy tone, one of regret in years gone by and realization of ones impending death.

"Twenty will not come again" is simply put, but is also very strong. Twenty is lost on him, and he can never get his youth back. The line that includes "little room" is also simple, but it gives many feelings. Claustrophobia seems to be closing in on him. He has only fifty years life to live, according to his calculations, and to him this is not enough time to enjoy his life as he would like. "Loveliest of Trees" says a lot about death, and paints a bleak picture where death is our only end.

All of us are really just one day closer to death with each passing day. There is "little room" left in life for us to have the ability to enjoy it completely. We have "little room" to live, and I feel that this poem strikes a chord for my feelings of death. It is inevitable, and once we realize that someday we will all die, we cannot simply look at blossoms all day, we should make use of what little time we have. Right now, I am young, and do not worry so much about my impending death, but in a few years, or maybe more, I too will realize my life is becoming shorter day by day. I will probably feel as if there is "little room" for me, and feel time closing in on me.

It is a sad thing that this life cannot last forever. Nobody can escape their date with death. "Loveliest of Trees" paints a bleak picture of life through its ballad-like verse. The speaker realizes his own impending death, and how little time he has left in this world to look at the cherry blossoms. His youth is fading fast, "twenty will not come again". Moreover, death is inevitable.

This poem uses simple diction, but the diction used paints the bleak picture of life that Housman wanted to paint. "Snow" represents the death of winter, and it is apparent that our lives will end in death. The religious context of Easter represents the Christian view of the rebirth of Christ, however, Housman does not say anything about being reborn. Rather it seems as if he views the only end to our present life is death, and the time is closing since each spring is one more spring closer to our deaths.