Name: Toán, Trân, Phụng

WHEN I WAS ONE AND TWENTY – A. E. HOUSMAN

Discussion questions
I. Short answer questions.
Part A
1. What was the advice in the first stanza?
=> Giving away anything but the heart. More sensible to give away money than their heart.

2. What was the young man’s reaction to the 1st advice?

=> Too immature to actually give that kind of attention, so that he ignores the wise man.

3. What was the advice in the second stanza? Was it the same or different from the first one?
=> The wise man warns about the perils of falling in and out of love. It's the same with direct repetition.

4. According to the old man, what did one get if he gave his heart to someone else?
=> "Sighs a plenty" and receive "endless rue," or misery.

5. What was the reaction of the young man in the second stanza?
=> He's grown up and realizes that advice is true.

6. What is rhythm and meter of the poem?

=> The form of rhythm that exaggerates the stresses and has three stressed syllables in each line ( an iambic
trimeter).

7. Identify the rhyme scheme in the poem.

=> The rhyme scheme is ABCBCDAD in the first stanza and ABCBADAD in the second stanza.

8. What 2 sound devices are used in the poem? Give an example for each.
=> Assonance:
Give pearls away and rubies (ln. 5)
But keep your fancy free.” (ln. 6)

Alliteration:
“When I was one-and-twenty

I heard a wise man say,”

9. What is the effect of repetition and parallelism?
=> There is a repetition of the verse “When I was one-and-twenty” which has created a musical quality in the
poem.
Parallelism makes the sentence or sentences symmetrical and therefore very memorable for the reader.

Part B
1. What do ‘crowns, pounds’ and ‘guineas’ symbolize?
=> “crowns and pounds and guineas” are all types of British coins, but it also symbolizes a kind of financial
transaction.

2. What does ‘heart’ imply?

=> “Heart” implies love.

3. What do ‘pearls’, ‘rubies’ represent?

=> Intensifying the message and emphasize the message “Love ⬄ a kind of financial transaction”.

4. What does ‘fancy’ mean?

=> ‘Fancy’ means love.

5. What is the implication of the use of the verbs ‘paid’ and ‘sold'?
=> Houseman uses the word “paid” and “sold” to continue the imagery of material objects in contrast with
love.

6. What is the significance of the use of the phrases ‘one-and-twenty’ and ‘two-and- twenty' instead of ‘twenty-
one' and ‘twenty-two’?

=> Housman’s use of ‘one-and-twenty’ instead of ‘twenty-one' and contributes to the lyrical style of the poem
(Be used poetically or for more interesting prose).