Poetry Month: Day 22

A. E. Housman (1859–1936).  A Shropshire Lad.  1896.

XIII. 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         5   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,         10 ‘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,         15   And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.