Arthur Stringer’s “Apple Blossoms” describes a brief, vivid scene: a speaker watches a young woman standing beneath blossoming apple trees. The flowers are so thick they feel like waves of colour, snow, and rose light, turning the orchard into something almost overwhelming. As petals drift down around her, the woman presses her hands to her chest. Her lips show wonder, but her eyes hold pain.
The speaker does not explain exactly why she feels this way. The sharp beauty of spring, her own youth and purity, and the soft falling blossoms all mix into a bittersweet mood. It suggests that intense beauty can ache, especially in spring, when everything is blooming and fleeting at once. The poem leaves us with a quiet, tender image of someone moved almost to sadness by loveliness.