one and twenty
"When I was one-and-twenty" by A.E. Housman, is a poem about one young man's growth, from twenty-one to twenty two. He is given advice, which is, the greatest gift in which a person can give to another is that of your heart. However at the age of twenty-one, money is a much better gift to give. You save yourself heartache, and having a lack of money is not as hard to fix as having a broken heart. Housman shows this in his poem by using meter in his tone, and imagery in his words. "When I was one-and-twenty/I heard a wise man say," A good opening for a poem, because it gets the reader ready for what is to come, and sets the tone and the rhyme. "Give crowns and pounds and guineas / but not your heart away;" is the third, and fourth lines; he is saying that a person ought to give money away instead of their heart. Money can be easily replaced; you go back to work, and make more. If you loose your heart, or it gets broken, the pain is deep, and what is strange, is you can't pin-point it's location. All you know, is that it hurts, and you want it to stop. The advise of the wise man is that money should be given as opposed to your heart, as far as love is concerned anyways. The money of nineteenth cent
In the second stanza, first line, Housman writes, "Give pearls away and rubies / But keep your fancy free." He is saying the better of the two gifts to give, is money, rather than the heart. Pearls and rubies are precious gems, The final stanza starts out the same as the previous two, with "When I was one and twenty." Instead of saying "I heard a wise man say" or "But keep your fancy free." It goes on to says, "I heard him say again" which means that the young man is listening to the "wise man" speak. The "wise man" goes on to say: "The heart out of the bosom / Was never given in vain;" which is pretty self it. Which gives the line fluency, and by doing so makes the line easier to read. I believe the tone to be cautious. Be careful where matter of the heart are concerned. You don't have to listen, but it would be in your best interest, "I've been there, and done that," is what the old man is saying to the reader. "I know what I am talking about when it comes to matters of the heart, so please be careful." rubies in this poem are examples of imagery. The heart, money, pearls, and rubies are all imagery words, they are also objects of great desire. Everyone searches to obtain each of these in one sense or another. Imagery words help our minds to make the poem more interesting, by creating a mental picture, and being able associate these with our hearts. What he might also be saying is that ones youth maybe worth more than money or anything else for that matter. Young men should be using their minds for furthering themselves, as in higher learning. Men should allow
Some common words found in the essay are:
AE Housman, pearls rubies, , sets tone, heard wise, heart age, imagery words, giving heart, crowns pounds guineas, age twenty-one, housman poem, mean receiver, instead saying,
Approximate Word count = 1081
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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