Honors English IV Poetry Project

By: Morgan Graves & Logan Cogdill

“When I Was One-And-Twenty”By: A.E. Housman

When I was one-and-twentyI heard a wise man say,

“Give crowns and pounds and guineasBut not your heart away;

Give pearls away and rubiesBut keep your fancy free.”But I was one-and-twenty,

No use to talk to me.

When I was one-and-twentyI heard him say again,

“The heart out of the bosomWas never given in vain;

’Tis paid with sighs a plentyAnd sold for endless rue.”And I am two-and-twenty,And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

Reading of Poem

Biographical Information

• A.E. Housman was married but never saw his bride after the wedding. This past event that occurred in his life could be a reason for writing this certain poem. Losing his mother at twelve and not having that relationship, was also a reason for making this poem.

Meaning of Poem

• This young man received advice from an older man about his current relationship. The advice the older man gave was to give away things of monetary value, instead of giving away your heart too young. The reason for saying that was because you never know when the other person is going to stop loving you. However, the young man chooses to ignore the advice and give away his heart but ended up having a broken heart. A year later the speaker is now twenty two, and is looking back on his past relationship and the advice he received and thinks “if only I had listened to the old man.”

Poetic Language• 1)Repetition: The author repeats “when I was one-and-

twenty” many times throughout the poem making him look like he regrets his decision when he was twenty-one.

• 2) Assonance: Accented vowel sounds. An example was in line 3, “Give crowns and pounds and guineas.”

• 3) Alliteration: The repetition of consonant sounds. An example is in line 6, “But keep your fancy free.”

• 4) Iambic Pentameter: The form of rhythm that exaggerates the stresses and has three stressed syllables in each line. An example was “When I was one-and-twenty.”

• 5) Metaphor: The contrast of two unlike things without the use of “like” or “as”. In the poem there is a contrast between giving love and giving away items of monetary value.

Thoughts Expressed in the Time Period

• The time period when this poem was written was during the Romantic Age. Having heart breaks, new loves, etc. caused the influence to hit A.E. Housman. Getting popularity by writing for the certain time era, was Housman’s way of getting famous.

Connection to the Picked Song

• In the song “Fifteen” by Taylor Swift, the speaker is looking back from when she was in high school and is now giving teenage girls relationship advice. Swift tells the girls to not fall in love with the first guy that they see, even though it feels great dating someone like the football team captain. In the poem “When I Was One-And-Twenty” the speaker, a young man; is given advice about his own relationship from a old wise man. The man told him not to give his heart away too early in life. The poem and song relate to each other by both of them having a speaker who is either receiving or giving advice about love.