The Cherry Tree
In the Great War, the Japanese were among Britain’s allies, and the Japanese cherry was a symbol of the courage demanded by the times.
1915
King George V 1910-1936
In the Great War, the Japanese were among Britain’s allies, and the Japanese cherry was a symbol of the courage demanded by the times.
1915
King George V 1910-1936
In 1915, Britain entered the second year of what later proved to have been the most appalling and wasteful war in human history. Joseph Longford, former Consul in Nagasaki and from 1903 the first Professor of Japanese at King’s College in London, contributed an essay to a series on ‘The Spirit of the Allied Nations’ in which he spoke of the Japanese cherry tree as a symbol of sacrifice.
abridged
EVERY season in the year has its own flower, fairest of all being the cherry, whose lovely pink and white blossoms spread their fragrance over the whole land in the sunny month of April, and everywhere provide forest bowers of fairy-like beauty, beneath which happy family groups gather in crowds to revel in happiness and good temper amidst a constant flow of cheerful gossip and soft, rippling laughter. The cherry flower is an emblem of life to the Japanese. Its only failing is that it is very shortlived. The first rough wind scatters its petals and covers the ground with a pale-pink carpet and soon all is over. And so should life be. Sunny, bright and beautiful when all goes well, but ever ready for sacrifice when it is required.
abridged
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.