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. 29. From the Wash the Laundress Sends
2. More Poems. 28. He, Standing Hushed, a Pace or Two Apart
3. More Poems. 37. I Did Not Lose My Heart in Summer’s Even
4. Last Poems. 33. When the Eye of Day Is Shut
5. A Shropshire Lad. 41. In My Own Shire, if I Was Sad

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