WHEN I WAS ONE-AND-TWENTY

Name: When I Was One-And-Twenty: (From a Shropshire Lad) - When I Was One-And-Twenty
Author: Alfred Edward 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 you 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.

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Chicago: Alfred Edward Housman, When I Was One-And-Twenty: (From a Shropshire Lad) Original Sources, accessed July 1, 2025, http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SCVZT3YBXJ9FLYL.

MLA: Housman, Alfred Edward. When I Was One-And-Twenty: (From a Shropshire Lad), Original Sources. 1 Jul. 2025. http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SCVZT3YBXJ9FLYL.

Harvard: Housman, AE, When I Was One-And-Twenty: (From a Shropshire Lad). Original Sources, retrieved 1 July 2025, from http://www.originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=SCVZT3YBXJ9FLYL.