When I Was One-and-Twenty

A. E. HousmanA. E. Housman

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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 *****
    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.
A. E. Housman
About the poet

A. E. Housman

1859 - 1936/EnglishAlfred Edward Housman, usually known as A. E. Housman, was an English classical scholar and poet, best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900. Their…

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