"When I Was One-And-Twenty" from A Shropshire Lad<br /><br />By A. E. Housman<br /><br />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 /><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.
