I'll Call It Like I See It

by sheila morris

When I Was One and Twenty (with apologies to A.E. Housman)

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Sheila Morris

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Five years ago in the summer of 2017 I posted my apologetic version of British poet A.E. Housman’s classic poem “When I was One and Twenty” published in 1896 in a collection called A Shropshire Lad. Housman, who was born in 1859 and died in 1936, had partially funded the publication of A Shropshire Lad following a publisher’s rejection. In today’s jargon, we call that self-publishing. The book has been in continuous print since then so somewhere in London a poetry publisher in the last decade of the nineteenth century cursed himself on a Roman British tablet…or on something equally appropriate.

Good news. I have updated my poem from five years ago, but before I wax poetic, I felt it might be helpful to share the original. The following was copied without permission from The Poetry Foundation.

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 sighs a plenty
       And sold for endless rue.”
And I am two-and-twenty,
       And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.
Interesting aside, Wikisneaks reports Housman met a young man named Moses Jackson when he was in St. John’s College at Oxford, developed a homosexual attraction for him which was not returned, and promptly failed his Finals in humiliation. I can personally identify with unrequited love in a college setting but thankfully focused on academics to graduate cum laude. But then, my poetry wasn’t brilliant.
When I was One and Twenty

(With apologies to A.E. Housman)

When I was one and twenty,

My world was make-believe.

A play directed by others

I felt compelled to please.

But now I’m one and seventy,

The play is on the shelf.

No lines to learn, no marks to hit,

The director is myself.

(August, 2017)

Here’s my revised efforts five years later

When I Was One and Twenty (with apologies to A.E. Housman)

When I was one and twenty,

I waited for love to find me

In the depths of a study hall.

But love never came, the nights were long

As youth slipped away in a pall.

But now I’m six and seventy,

The curtain takes a call.

Love came in time, the nights are sublime

Away, long away, from the time in the study hall.

***************************

Okay. Clearly I haven’t captured “brilliant” in the intervening years.

Comments

2 responses to “When I Was One and Twenty (with apologies to A.E. Housman)”

  1. JosieHolford Avatar
    JosieHolford

    Always good to read a little Housman also a refreshed Housman!
    Not entirely relevant to your updated ditty I was reminded of this parody that digs at Housman’s focus on the deaths of young men.

    Poem, after A. E. Housman
    by Hugh Kingsmill
    What, still alive at twenty-two,
    A clean, upstanding chap like you!
    Sure, if your throat ’tis hard to slit,
    Slit your girl’s, and swing for it.

    Like enough, you won’t be glad
    When they come to hang you, lad:
    But bacon’s not the only thing
    That’s cured by hanging from a string.

    So, when the spilt ink of the night
    Spreads o’er the blotting-pad of light
    Lads whose job is still to do
    Shall whet their knives, and think of you.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Sheila Morris Avatar
      Sheila Morris

      Excellent! Very representative of the dark twists and turns Housman must have relished.
      Bravo, Josie!

      Liked by 1 person

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