Analysis

This poem was written by A.E. Houseman. “When I was One-and-Twenty” was
published in 1896. The poem is about young people typically not heeding wise advice. This
poem consists of two rimed stanzas of eight lines each. The rhyme scheme of this poem is
ABCBCDAD in the first stanza and ABCBADAD in the second stanza. The poem has certain
rhythm – each of even-numbered lines contains six syllables and each of the odd-numbered
lines contains seven syllables. The word ‘tis used for meter, to make the line have the proper
number of syllables. ‘tis means it is. This poem includes repetition in the poetic devices
because there are repetition of words and phrases; “When I was one-and-twenty” (in line 1
and line 9), “I heard” (in line 2 and line 10), the word “but” (in line 4, 6, and line 7), and the
words “and” (in line 14, 15, and line 16).

In the first stanza, it clearly explains us that the speaker was in 21 years old, it is
marked on sentence “ when i was one - and twenty”. The speaker also tells us that he was
given some advices by a wise man that asked him (the speaker) to better lose the money than
lose one’s heart or love. It means that we should not give our heart away. The money is
symbolization from “Give crowns, pounds, and guineas”. The wise man also told to him that
heart is important than the other. It is explained in a sentence “ Give pearls away and rubies
but keep your fancy free”. It also shows us, we better to lose jewelry or valuable things rather
than our heart. Fancy free refers to something valuable. But- unfortunatley the speaker did
not heeding the wise man’s advices because he (speaker) thought that he (speaker) is a young
man who was inhabit of listening of advices from the other, he want to be free to enjoy his
life. It is marked on the sentence“ No use to talk to me”.

In the second stanza, the speaker tells us that he was warned by a wise man more than
once. It is marked on the sentence “ I heard him say again”. A wise man said to him that love
or heart is important thing and never give up too freely to everyone. If the speaker do not hear
the advices from a wise man, he will regret and feel sorrow. One year older, or when the
speaker was in twenty two years old, he realized that the advice from the wise man is true.
The word “oh” in the last line refers to regret and sorrow.

The first possibility is that he did not recognize the wisdom of the wise man until he
turned older “two-and-twenty” (line 15). The other possibility is that the poem’s speaker did
realize that it was a good advice at the time but was helpless to do anything about it because
he was too young. Both of these ways of looking at the phrase “a wise man” (line 2) illustrate
the same thing about knowledge. So it can only be absorbed when one is ready for it.

I think the poem is related with Housman’s biography. This is confirmed with a little
biographical information. Housman met Moses Jackson, a fellow Oxford student, and fell in
love with him. Jackson, however, was heterosexual and did not return his feelings. The two,
however, would remain friends for most of their lives. In verse published after he died,
Housman wrote: “Because I liked you better / Than suits a man to say, / It irked you, and I
promised / To throw the thought away.” Housman worked and lived together with Jackson
until 1886; at that time, Housman moved to another part of London, likely because it was too
difficult to live so close to the man he loved. Later, Jackson married and moved away, and it
was shortly thereafter that Housman wrote the bulk of his poetry: “I did not begin to write
poetry in earnest until the really emotional part of my life was over.”

If Housman had composed his love poems while experiencing emotional turmoil, the
work might have suffered and indeed been merely self-centered—what some people think of
as adolescent. But because he waited until he gained perspective on his feelings, it might be
more prudent to think his poems transcended the merely personal, and became poems that
might be called songs of adolescence—not adolescent songs.