When I Was One-and-Twenty

When I Was One-and-Twenty, or Poem XIII, is the informal name of an untitled poem by A. E. Housman, published in A Shropshire Lad in 1896. It is the thirteenth in a cycle of 63 poems. One of Housman's most familiar poems, it is untitled but often anthologised under a title taken from its first line. The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations includes fourteen of its sixteen lines. Housman's New York Times obituary mentioned the poem: "Typical of his lyrics is the poem which has thrilled the world where English is spoken."^[1] Its subject matter, "then and now" temporal perspective, meter, and narrative structure within each verse parallel those of William Butler Yeats' Down by the Salley Gardens, itself a reworking of The Rambling Boys of Pleasure.

Text

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.

Cultural references

The poem is referenced and recited in Rod Serling's The Changing of the Guard, the 102nd episode of the original The Twilight Zone television series (Season 3, episode 37). It first aired June 1, 1962.^[2]

"When I Was One-and-Twenty" was also recorded by Michael Nesmith of The Monkees. It appears on the CD Mike Nesmith Solo Sessions 1963–1965. According to musical historian A. V. Butcher, English composer George Butterworth "was intimately concerned with the collecting and editing of folksongs, and he found a traditional tune in the Dorian mode which could be happily wedded to 'When I was one-and-twenty'."^[3] Butterworth's setting is included in his song cycle Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad. In 1924, composer C. W. Orr also created music for the poem as part of his Housman settings series.

In the 1953 film Titanic, Barbara Stanwyck's character recites the first and second stanzas of "When I Was One-and-Twenty." ^[4]

References

1. Staff report (May 02, 1936). "A.E. Housman dead; Poet and Scholar; Two Slender Books, in 1896 and 1922, Won Fame for Shropshire Writer. Taught Latin for Years. Held Chair at Cambridge Since 1911 -- Noted as Editor of Texts of Juvenal and Lucan". New York Times
2. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052520/episodes?season=3&ref_=tt_eps_sn_3
3. Butcher, A. V. (1948). "A. E. Housman and the English Composer". Music & Letters (1948) XXIX (4): 329-339. doi: 10.1093/ml/XXIX.4.329
4. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046435/trivia

External links

• Explanation: "When I Was One-and-Twenty" from Exploring Poetry, Gale Cengage, 1997. From the Internet archive

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