When I was one-and-twenty <br />I heard a wise man say, <br />"Give crowns and pounds and guineas <br />But not your heart away; <br />Give pearls away and rubies <br />But keep your fancy free." <br />But I was one-and-twenty, <br />No use to talk to me. <br /> <br />When I was one-and-twenty <br />I heard him say again, <br />"The heart out of the bosom <br />Was never given in vain; <br />'Tis paid with sighs a plenty <br />And sold for endless rue." <br />And I am two-and-twenty, <br />And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.<br /><br />Alfred Edward Housman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/when-i-was-one-and-twenty/
