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 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 sigh a plenty
And sold for endless rue."
And I am two-and-twenty
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.

A.E. Housman 1896

It is such a beautiful experience when literature can reach out to you in a way that opens your eyes and your heart to it. This poem, along with Doris Lessing's 'To Room Nineteen," have been cornerstone works for me this past week. Wrestling with intellectual versus emotional responses and creating a new lens through which I can look at the world becomes exhausting, yet these have rejuvenated me.