21

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 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.

Interpretation:

The theme of the poem "When I was One and Twenty" is given by the “wise man” in two pieces of wisdom, but they are closely related. One is, in effect, “Don’t give your heart away,” that is, don’t fall in love; the second is, “If you do give your heart away, you will suffer.”

The speaker ignored the advice, and now, at twenty-two, has learned its truth. The last line of the poem, with its repetition, suggests that the speaker takes his youthful sorrow very seriously (“And oh ’tis true, ’tis true”), but surely the line strikes one (and is intended to strike) as a trifle maudlin. And, since the poem jingles nicely and almost suggests a nursery rhyme, we can hardly take the grief too seriously. We listen with sympathetic amusement to this tale of disillusionment, but we are pretty confident that the young man in the poem will survive, and probably will live to love another day.


*how true! Isn't young love a bittersweet memory?