When I Was One and Twenty

Listen to:

When I Was One and Twenty (:57)

by A.E. Housman

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

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.