Young Men and Death
Housman's book A Shropshire Lad is obsessed with death, and in particular with the death of young people before their time. It's kind of strange because Housman didn't really have any reason for going on and on about this theme. He wasn't like Tennyson, whose best friend died tragically at sea at a very young age.
Even though the speaker of "Loveliest of Trees" doesn't die, he is a young man (20 years old) with death on his mind. That definitely counts. "To an Athlete Dying Young", one of Housman's most famous poems, is another example. In that poem, Housman describes a young lad who "will not swell the rout / Of lads that wore their honors out" (17-18). "Is My Team Ploughing" is a conversation between two friends (one of whom is dead), and a number of his other poems are about young soldiers going off to war ("Wake: the Silver Dusk Returning," "Leave Your Home Behind, Lad"), where death is a very real possibility.