When I was One and Twenty - AE Houseman

I first memorized this poem when I was seventeen.. This is a picture of me in 1995 (when I was Five and Twenty) - still in my Houseman Phase.

| When I Was One and Twenty |

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
'Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;
Give pearls away and rubies
But keep your fancy free.'
But I was one-and-twenty,
No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twenty
I heard him say again,
'The heart out of the bosom
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.'
And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.


| When I Was One and Twenty | A Shropshire Lad | 1896 | A.E. Houseman |