When I Was One-and-Twenty BY A. E. HOUSMAN

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 [heart] 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 [chest]
Was never given in vain;
’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue [sadness].”
And I am two-and-twenty, And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.