Three cherry trees stand at the centre of a wistful, song-like story about beauty and its afterimage. In a shady garden, a beautiful lady walks and dreams while blackbirds, throstles, and linnets sing around her. The speaker insists she is lovelier than everything else there. Then the seasons turn: blossoms become berries, and one summer day a lover with sweet, tender vows charms her away. By the last stanza, the garden has grown neglected—moss and lichen on the branches, weeds in the paths. The lady is gone, yet her light footstep still seems to wander there in dreams, a happy ghost. The mood is delicate and melancholy, touched with fairy-tale strangeness. It is not bitter loss; it is a haunting, as if the garden still remembers the joy and loveliness it once held.
The Three Cherry Trees — Summary
There were three cherry trees once, Grew in a garden all shady; And there for delight of so gladsome a sight, Walked a most beautiful lady, Dreamed a most beautiful lady.
Birds in those branches did sing, Blackbird and throstle and linnet, But she walking there was by far the most fair-- Lovelier than all else within it, Blackbird and throstle and linnet.
But blossoms to berries do come, All hanging on stalks light and slender, And one long summer's day charmed that lady away, With vows sweet and merry and tender; A lover with voice low and tender.
Moss and lichen the green branches deck; Weeds nod in its paths green and shady: Yet a light footstep seems there to wander in dreams, The ghost of that beautiful lady, That happy and beautiful lady.