Poem by Alfred Edward Housman

A Shropshire Lad. 13. 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
  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.

1. More Poems. 15. Tarry, Delight; so Seldom Met
2. More Poems. 17. Bells in Tower at Evening Toll
3. Last Poems. 11. Yonder See the Morning Blink
4. Additional Poems. 5. Here Are the Skies, the Planets Seven
5. More Poems. 25. Yon Flakes that Fret the Eastern Sky

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