In the poem's first quatrain (four-line stanza), the speaker makes it clear that spring has officially arrived. The cherry tree, which the speaker believes is the most beautiful tree around, is in bloom, its branches "hung" with pretty white blossoms. That passive verb, "hung," as though nature itself has decorated the tree to celebrate the season.
The poem's syntax (that is, word order) emphasizes the cherry tree's splendor, placing its loveliness right up front:
Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Note, too, how enjambment calls readers' attention to the word "now" and creates immediate anticipation and excitement. This is a poem about seizing the day, and "now" firmly sets it in the present moment.
Pretty-sounding alliteration ("bloom," "bough") and consonance ("hung," "along"; "loveliest," "bloom," "along") bring the lines' imagery to life. These sounds chime harmoniously, creating sonic beauty to mirror the visual beauty of the cherry tree.
These lines also establish the poem's meter. "Loveliest of Trees" uses iambic tetrameter throughout, with some variations. Iambs are metrical feet with an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern (da-DUM), and tetrameter just means there are four of them in each line. Note, though, how the first line immediately breaks this pattern:
Loveliest | of trees, | the cher- | ry now
Is hung | with bloom | along | the bough,
The poem starts with a dactyl—a trisyllabic foot that goes stressed-unstressed-unstressed (DUM-da-da). The first line thus starts with a metrical "spring" in its step!
Note, too, that the poem uses rhyming couplets throughout. The clear rhyme of "now" and "bough" adds to the poem's sonic beauty.