A. E. (Alfred Edward) Housman

Alfred Housman was born in Fockbury, England, but his parents moved shortly after his birth to Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, near the Shropshire countryside he immortalized in poetry. His father, a

Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

by A. E. (Alfred Edward) Housman (1859–1936)

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16

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

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