[Namsan Stroll] The Story of Housman, the Poet Who Praised Cherry Blossoms

A Despairing First Love Remembered in Old Age
Fate of Spring Blossoms in Full Bloom

Cherry blossoms are in full bloom. They blossom so extravagantly, as if they might swallow the world, only to fall away all too soon—this is why cherry blossoms resemble youth. Even if you try to map the human lifespan onto the four seasons, the season of cherry blossoms lines up perfectly with the time of youth. Every year when I see the cherry blossoms, I think of the British poet Alfred Edward Housman (1859–1936). It is because of his poem, where he praises the cherry tree as the most lovely of all. The poem reads as follows:

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.

It is not certain if Housman actually wrote this poem when he was twenty. The collection containing the poem was published when Housman was thirty-seven. In any case, he estimated his lifespan to be seventy years, and he actually lived to be sixty-seven, so his prediction was fairly accurate. Like the speaker in the poem, I first read it when I was twenty. But now, I have already passed through fifty springs. How many springs do I have left? I don’t want to guess. I simply appreciate and enjoy the cherry blossoms, which bloom so reliably each year. My favorite among Housman’s poems is actually a different one: ‘When I Was One-and-Twenty.’

When I was one-and-twenty, a wise man said to me,

"Give crowns and pounds and guineas,

But not your heart away;

Give pearls away and rubies,

But keep your fancy free."

But I was one-and-twenty,

No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty, I heard him say again,

"The heart out of the bosom

Was never given in vain;

'Tis paid with sighs a plenty

And sold for endless rue."

And I am two-and-twenty,

And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

After reading the poem, I find myself wondering: what is the difference between being twenty-one and twenty-two? But when you know about the poet’s life, the question is resolved. Housman was gay and had a male friend he fell in love with during his university years. That man rejected Housman’s love, married a woman, and moved to Canada, while Housman remained single. Having published just one poetry collection, Housman devoted himself to research and teaching as a professor. Well past sixty, he heard that his first love had fallen seriously ill, prompting him to hurry and publish a second and final poetry collection.

It was an era when being gay could land you in prison. How must it have felt to fall for a man at twenty-one and suppress those feelings for decades? Imagine an old man breaking his decades-long silence and publishing a book of poems in the hope that the man he loved at twenty-one might read it before he died. What kind of love could this possibly be? I cannot even guess. However, it seems reasonable to think that his poem ‘When I Was One-and-Twenty’ came from his own experience of falling in love at twenty-one and having his heart broken at twenty-two. It’s the perfect season for love. Cherry blossoms, which are beautiful even when seen alone, are even better when shared.

Lee Jaeik, SBS Radio Producer and Novelist

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.