Carpe Diem: The speaker focuses on the shortness of life. He dedicates a whole stanza to calculating how many years he has left to appreciate the flowering season of the cherry trees. He expounds on the temporality of nature and its bloom, evoking images of “the cherry hung with snow” which implies death. Nature serves as a constant reminder that life is merely temporary.
Changing seasons are often used in poetry to metaphorically describe the stages of a person’s life. Spring is youth, summer is adulthood, fall is middle age, and winter is old age. By “snow” the speaker suggests that he will look at nature in all seasons, winter included, because there is too much to see and appreciate with his limited time. However, he also metaphorically means that he will continue to go out and look at the cherry trees into his old age.
The speaker uses the word “things,” objects that one need not or cannot give a specific name to, in order to emphasize the many things he must pay attention to and has not yet experienced. The speaker uses the word “things” to remind readers that there is so much to observe in the world in bloom, and that they must keep their eyes open to everything.
