Louis Macneice is closely associated with the nineteen thirties group of poets that included W H Auden. Many of his best-known poems date from that period. This one though is from much later, 1957.
I don’t want to say too much about it, because I feel that different readers may interpret it slightly differently. There may be an autobiographical element here. Perhaps Macneice had to be older to write it to convey the sense that life is still worth living after idyllic early years and that the present is connected to the past.
I suppose apple blossoms are more associated with the spring, but there is a powerful sense of optimism and renewal here that makes it appropriate for this first week of the new year.
Apple Blossom by Louis Macneice
The first blossom was the best blossom
For the child who never had seen an orchard;
For the youth whom whisky had led astray
The morning after was the first day.
The first apple was the best apple
For Adam before he heard the sentence;
When the flaming sword endorsed the Fall
The trees were his to plant for all.
The first ocean was the best ocean
For the child from streets of doubt and litter;
For the youth for whom the skies unfurled
His first love was his first world.
But the first verdict seemed the worst verdict
When Adam and Ever were expelled from Eden;
Yet when the bitter gates clanged to
The sky beyond was just as blue.
For the next ocean is the first ocean
And the last ocean is the first ocean
And, however often the sun may rise,
A new thing dawns upon our eyes.
For the last blossom is the first blossom
And the first blossom is the best blossom
And when from Eden we take our way
The morning after is the first day.
The Good Reader 