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-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.
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-andtwenty” 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.