"To Blossoms"

By Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick was both a poet and Anglican priest in the 17th century. He wrote both religious and non-religious poetry and is most famous for the line “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” in his poem “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.”

Fair pledges of a fruitful tree,
   Why do ye fall so fast?
   Your date is not so past,
But you may stay yet here awhile
   To blush and gently smile,
      And go at last.
		
What, were ye born to be
   An hour or half's delight,
   And so to bid good-night?
'Twas pity Nature brought ye forth
   Merely to show your worth,
      And lose you quite.

But you are lovely leaves, where we
   May read how soon things have
   Their end, though ne'er so brave:
And after they have shown their pride
   Like you, awhile, they glide
      Into the grave.

Generally in poems with the word “to” in the title, the speaker of the poem is talking directly to the object that the poem is about. Cherry trees all around Nashville have just started to bloom, and they are such a welcome reprieve from a winter of bare dead branches. I totally understand the urge to address them in a poem.

The trees in here in Nashville seem to have completely opened up overnight, but sadly the blossoms will go as quickly as they came. The speaker asks the blossoms “Why do ye fall so fast?” and I think it’s a great question. It’s a “pity” to “show your worth” and be gone so suddenly. Despite the speakers invitation to “stay yet here a while” the blossom’s remain “an hour or half’s delight.”

Is it just a “pity” that the blossoms fall so fast? Or does the poet answer his own question of “why do ye fall so fast?”

It doesn’t matter how “brave” you are, or how much “pride” you may have, all things in short order “glide into the grave.” Blossoms remind us that we too will fall soon, so we ought to be as beautiful as possible while we remain. Perhaps blossoms are so beautiful to ensure our notice of them at winter’s end, so by paying attention we learn not to waste the spring.