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. —a. e. housman, "the loveliest which of the following statements best tell the theme of this poem? a. we need to appreciate every moment of our lives. b. beauty and youth are brief. c. beauty can only be appreciated by the young. d. spring blossoms are often ruined by snow.

The harlem renaissance dawned in an era of pervasive racism and segregation. although legally "free," many african americans were still bound by ideas that had their roots in the slavery of earlier centuries. identity and freedom are important ideas presented in many of the poems from the harlem renaissance. furthermore, the values of identity and freedom are not unique to particular times and places. as hughes expresses in "dream variations," all humans want to be able to develop their identities in freedom. what role does freedom play in the poems you read in this unit? what is required of a society to enable each individual to be true to his or her identity and be free to live by that identity? write about at least three of the poems, describing how the poet uses imagery to depict freedom and identity, the lack of it, or the desire for it.