When I was one-and –twenty

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 when when 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’m two-and-twenty,
And oh, ‘tis true, ‘tis true.
A.E.Housman