When I Was One-and-Twenty

By A. E. Housman

“When I Was One-and-Twenty” is A. E. Housman’s 1896 poem about a young man who ignores a wise man’s advice never to give his heart away, then learns a year later, at 22, that the warning was true. The 16-line lyric is poem XIII of A Shropshire Lad, and its folk-song rhythm has made it one of Housman’s most popular poems.

Our reading is that the poem’s joke is also its sorrow. The gap between hearing a truth and knowing it is only one year, and the last line lets a whole year of heartbreak out in a single sigh.

At a Glance

Poet
A. E. Housman (1859–1936)
First published
A Shropshire Lad (Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner and Co., 1896), as poem XIII
Form
Lyric in two eight-line stanzas
Length
16 lines
Meter
Iambic trimeter (“when I was ONE-and-TWEN-ty”)
Era
Victorian
Best-known lines
“And I am two-and-twenty, / And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.”

ON THIS PAGE
Summary · The Poem · Background · Analysis and Themes · Form and Technique · Notable Lines · Themes · FAQ
Glossary · In Popular Culture · Related Poems

Summary

The speaker remembers being 21, when a wise man told him he could give away money and jewels but never his heart. At that age, he would not listen.

The wise man said it again: a heart given away is always paid for with sighs and endless regret. Now the speaker is 22, and he admits, with a sigh, that it is true.

The Poem

The text below follows A Shropshire Lad (1896), as transcribed from a scanned early edition on Wikisource.

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.

Background

“When I Was One-and-Twenty” is poem XIII of A Shropshire Lad, the 1896 sequence of 63 poems that Housman paid to have published. Housman was a classical scholar, later Professor of Latin at Cambridge, and the book slowly became one of the best-loved volumes of English poetry, especially during the First World War. Like most of the poems in the sequence, this one has no title and is known by its first line.

The speaker is one of the book’s young countrymen, looking back on advice he ignored. Some readers, aware of Housman’s lifelong, unreturned love for his college friend Moses Jackson, hear a more personal ache beneath the poem’s light, proverbial surface.

Analysis and Themes

The poem turns on one rueful joke: the gap between being told a truth and learning it. Its two stanzas stage that lesson as a before and after, separated by a single year.

The Wise Man’s Warning

In the first stanza, the wise man speaks like a proverb: give away crowns, pounds, guineas, pearls, and rubies if you must, but not your heart, and “keep your fancy free.” The young speaker brushes him off: “No use to talk to me.” Youth, the poem suggests, cannot be warned. It has to find out for itself.

Wealth Versus the Heart

The list of riches sets up the poem’s central comparison. Money and jewels can be given away safely because they can be replaced, and the heart cannot. By setting the heart against coins and gems, Housman suggests that the most valuable thing a person owns is also the most dangerous to spend.

The Lesson Learned Too Late

The second stanza repeats the setup, “When I was one-and-twenty / I heard him say again,” but now the speaker has lived the consequence. A heart given away is “never given in vain,” meaning it always costs something: it is “paid with sighs a plenty / And sold for endless rue.” The last lines collapse the argument into a sigh, and a single year has turned a dismissed warning into hard knowledge.

Form and Technique

The poem has 16 lines in two eight-line stanzas of iambic trimeter, as in “when I was ONE-and-TWEN-ty.” Only the even lines rhyme (“say” and “away,” “free” and “me,” “again” and “vain,” “rue” and “true”), while the odd lines, including the refrain, go unrhymed. The effect is the easy lilt of a folk song, which is one reason composers have loved it.

Housman’s tools are repetition and restraint. The refrain “When I was one-and-twenty” opens both stanzas, suggesting that every young person relearns the same lesson. The diction is plain and proverbial, and the emotion is held back until the final line, where the doubled “’tis true, ’tis true” lets it out.

Notable Lines

Three passages carry the poem.

‘Give crowns and pounds and guineas
But not your heart away;

Lines 3 to 4

The wise man’s warning, weighing replaceable wealth against the heart.

’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
And sold for endless rue.’

Lines 13 to 14

The cost of love, stated as plainly as a proverb.

And I am two-and-twenty,
And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

Lines 15 to 16

The rueful close, where one repeated phrase carries a year of experience.

Themes

Three ideas run through the poem.

Youth and experience. The young cannot be told; they have to learn by living.

The cost of love. Giving your heart away always carries a price in sighs and regret.

Regret. The poem looks back, with gentle humor and real pain, on a mistake that could not have been avoided.

Frequently Asked Questions

These are the questions readers most often ask about “When I Was One-and-Twenty”.

What is “When I Was One-and-Twenty” about?

It is about a young man who ignored an older man’s advice not to give his heart away. At 21, he would not listen, and a year later, at 22 and heartbroken, he admits the advice was true. It is a poem about youth, love, and learning the hard way.

What is the message of “When I Was One-and-Twenty”?

The message is that some lessons cannot be taught, only learned through experience. The wise man warns that love costs “sighs a plenty” and “endless rue,” but the young speaker has to discover it for himself.

What does “keep your fancy free” mean?

It means stay unattached, or do not fall in love. “Fancy” here means affection or romantic interest, so the wise man is telling the young man to keep his heart his own.

What is the rhyme scheme of “When I Was One-and-Twenty”?

Only the even-numbered lines rhyme, in each stanza: “say” and “away,” “free” and “me,” “again” and “vain,” “rue” and “true.” The unrhymed odd lines, including the refrain, give the poem the loose feel of a folk song.

Glossary

A few words and coins may be unfamiliar.

  • one-and-twenty (line 1): An older way of saying twenty-one.
  • crowns, pounds, guineas (line 3): British money. A crown was five shillings, and a guinea was 21 shillings.
  • fancy (line 6): Affection or romantic interest. “Keep your fancy free” means do not fall in love.
  • bosom (line 11): The chest, as the seat of feeling.
  • ’Tis (line 13): It is.
  • a plenty (line 13): In plenty. “Sighs a plenty” means many sighs.
  • rue (line 14): Bitter regret. It is also the name of a bitter herb linked with sorrow.

The poem’s song-like rhythm has drawn many composers.

George Butterworth set it as the second song in his cycle Six Songs from “A Shropshire Lad” (1911), the best-known musical version. Arthur Somervell included it in his 1904 song cycle from the book, and Ivor Gurney set it in Ludlow and Teme (1919).

If this poem speaks to you, these make good companions.

a e housmanenglishlovelyricregretvictorianyouth

By , Editor · Last updated September 2026