Lyr Add: One and Twenty (A E Housman) sound poem

Subject: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 09:29 AM

Alfred Edward Housman poet and pre-eminent classicist of his time, was born near Bromsgrove in Worcestershire 1859–1936, An English poet and scholar, whose verse exerted a strong influence on later poets. Housman proved to be one of the finest classical scholars of his time...This uncomplicated but oh so true poem surely will remind us all of our youthful innocence...here's the link to the page with the sound file..
One and twenty by A E Houseman (sound poem set to music)

Regards.

Jim Clark...
PS..Dont forget you can if you prefer listen to my sound poems at my Yahoo "sound poetry" web group (look in "files") heres that link
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bloozman_uk/

All rights are reserved on this sound recording/copyright/patent Jim Clark 2003

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.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: Amos
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 09:45 AM

This, by the way, fits nicely as a talking blues. :>)

A

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: IanC
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 10:11 AM

"When I was One and Twenty" was acknowledged by W. B. Yeats to be the inspiration for his poem "Sally Garden". It's normally sung to the same tune.

The only other A. E. Housman poem I know that's set to music is "Thirteen Pence a Day".

:-)

Subject: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Genie
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 12:16 PM

Thanks for postin the poem and links, Jim. (I couldn't open the sound file-- I don't think it downloaded or opened --, but I'll try later on a different browser.

Weren't there 3 verses to Housman's poem, though? I seem to recall reading (and hearing Basil Rathbone superbly read) three verses. (Or is my memory playing tricks on me?)

Genie

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: Watson
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 12:46 PM

I've seen the poem as posted by Jim, but divided into 3 verses - Jim's first verse split into two quatrains.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 01:03 PM

Ian - Mike Raven (with Joan Mills) recorded an album A Shropshire Lad of Houseman poems set to traditional tunes (interspersed with Welsh tunes on solo guitar).

(According to Mike Raven Catalogue of Recordings Houseman refused to let the BBC broadcast his poems unless they were put to melodies and sung).


Mick

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: Watson
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 01:18 PM

Also recorded by Polly Bolton, who lives in Shropshire, on "The Loveliest of Trees", with readings by Nigel Hawthorne.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Genie
Date: 19 Mar 03 - 02:09 PM

Mick, if Housman "refused to let the BBC broadcast his poems unless they were put to melodies and sung," that's probably because few people would read or recite the poem with the skill that Sir Basil R. did! (He didn't "need no steenking music!") :-D

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 02:37 AM

Thanx Guys your feedback is most interesting I hoope some of you will make the journey over to come and listen to this and numerous other sound poems and acoustic music recordings....I got the poem from the Penguin book of Victorian verse edition edited by Daniel Karlin 1997 and now I see I should have broken the poem into three..the third and final part commences 'Tis paid with sighs a plenty.....I think you'll find my reading is in this order..

Genie I hope you've managed to listen to this sound poem by now.MSN possibly because of pressures on their network caused by the Iraq situation were having one of their funny days yesterday...You do need to become a member at MSN and Yahoo sites to open sound files,but rest assured the dozens of sound poems and music tracks on my websites do play..

Regards.

Jim Clark....

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: alanabit
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 03:44 AM

I don't know much about Houseman - or indeed poetry in general - but I have liked the few lines I have read. It has proper rhymes and metre and it sounds wise without being preachy. Was he one of the Gloucester poets whom Johny Coppin also set to music?
I did come across an anecdote which I liked. Apparently as he was dying, his doctor told him a bawdy joke to cheer him up. He replied,
"That is indeed very good. I shall have to repeat that on the Golden Floor!"
I think I would have liked the bloke. Thanks for posting the link.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: GUEST,Jim Clark..London.England
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 04:10 AM

Thanx Alanbit,

I'd not heard of Johnny Coppin before,but i've just taken a look at his website and he looks interesting....

Regards.

Jim Clark.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 05:17 AM

When I was One and Twenty" was acknowledged by W. B. Yeats to be the inspiration for his poem "Sally Garden".

Since A Shropshire Lad, including Housman's poem, was puiblished in 1896, and Crossways, with Yeats's, was published in 1889, this seems questionable, even though it is true that poems exist in manuscript before they ever get printed.

Given the identical metre, which means the two can be sung as one song, and the similarity of theme it might conceivably be true the other way round. (Though Housman's joke about a 22 year old lamenting the long lost days when he was 21 has no equivaknet in the poem by Yeats - which is a distillation of a pre-existing song he didn't write.)

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: IanC
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 08:03 AM

Easy really Kevin. "One and Twenty" was written in 1887. "A Shroshire Lad" as a collection of poems, was published in 1896.

:-)

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: IanC
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 09:00 AM

MCP

Thanks for the Mike Raven info. Following on what you said, I had a poke round on the web and found This Site which has quite a few Housman songs.

:-)

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: MikeofNorthumbria
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 09:28 AM

A E Houseman, for my money, was a superb writer of sentimental love lyrics for the inexperienced and frustrated young. If he'd been born half a century later, he'd have had a steady job in the pop music industry. It's true that judged by the very highest standards, his work is not 'great' poetry. But for all that, there's no need to sneer at it, as so many 'serious' literary critics do nowadays.   

Read Houseman at nineteen and you think, "Ah yes, that's just how it feels". Read him again at thirty and you're liable to experience some embarrassment. Not because of the verse itself, but because of the sensations (and the blunders) it reminds you of so vividly.

However, the old fellow had a lighter side too, as this short offering demonstrates:

Oh, when I was in love with you, then I was clean and brave,
And miles around, the wonder grew how well I did behave.
But now the fancy passes by, and nothing will remain,
And miles around, they say that I am quite myself again.

In view of current events in Iraq, we might also recall the following lines of Houseman's, written just after World War 1:

Here dead we lie, because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is, and we were young.

Wassail!

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: IanC
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 10:07 AM

There's no E in Housman!

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: Beccy
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 10:28 AM

Didn't Housman die obscenely young?

I LOVE a Shropshire Lad. Does anyone have a link to a sampling of the Housman poems set to music? I didn't see one in the link provided by Mick.

Beccy

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: IanC
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 11:32 AM

Born 1859 died 1936 ... not really.

;-)

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: Beccy
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 11:59 AM

Get out! Of whom am I thinking, then?

Beccy

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: IanC
Date: 20 Mar 03 - 12:34 PM

Rupert Brooke perhaps?

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: musicmick
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 02:05 AM

I have always sung "When I Was One and Twenty" to the tune of "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling". It fits just right.
Another idea is to sing Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd to his Love" (The one that starts out with, "Come live with me and be my love...) to the tune of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen"
I love poetry which, in my crowd, makes me stand out like a bagpipe in a bluegrass band.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 03:51 AM

Beccy - I can't see any samples of Mike Raven's settings. His CDs are available directly from him if you want one.

Mick

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 21 Mar 03 - 11:39 AM

I sing "One and Twenty" to a minor tune I "wrote" myself. Unfortunately, the poem is really too short to make a good performance song.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: Lyr Add: When I was one-and-twenty
From: GUEST,CHICO
Date: 07 Feb 08 - 09:17 PM

This baby has been arranged to music for choir. Heard at "GMEA All State Men's Choir" It's a minor key.

  [Capo +2]
  (a c b g, &c)
  
      Am
  When I was one-and-twenty
      G               Am
  I heard a wise man say,
          F                    C
  "Give crowns and pounds and guineas
       E7             Am  
  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
                           A
  And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.
  
  

[A.E. Housman, number XIII from A Shropshire Lad, 1986.

Alfred Edward Housman (26 March 1859 – 30 April 1936), usually known as A.E. Housman, was an English poet and classical scholar best known for his cycle of poems A Shropshire Lad. Lyrical and almost epigrammatic in form, the poems were mostly written before 1900. Their wistful evocation of doomed youth in English countryside, their spare, strophic language and distinctive imagery appealed strongly to the Edwardian and Georgian English composers (beginning with Arthur Somervell) both before and after the First World War. Through their song-settings the poetry therefore became closely associated with that generation, and are undyingly associated with Shropshire itself.

In the first stanza, the speaker (even admitingly to himself) comes off as a brash youth: "I was one-and-twenty, / No use to talk to me" (line 7, 8.) But in the second stanza, Housman makes it clear that with age the speaker has gained maturity and learned a valuable lesson about life and love: "I am two-and-twenty, / And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true" (line 15, 16.)

This poem is very succinct, with meaning that goes well beyond the actual words written. Housman's use of money-language: "crowns, pounds, guineas, pearls, rubies, paid, and sold" all serve metaphorically towards the price each of us pays when gambling with love. The idea of money and currency is an interesting way to explain the trials of love. Overall, Housman's "When I Was One-and-Twenty" is a comical verse about the futility of love, youth, experience, and the irony in living life.]

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Houseman sound poem
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 12:28 AM

Will the authorities correct the spelling of Housman's name in the subject line?

---

Good eye, Joe! Thread title error corrected.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Micca
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 03:43 AM

Hissyfit do a wonderful version of Housmans "Blue remembered hills" wwith additional veres on on their CD "Sweet Minerva" see here

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 05:29 AM

I always find him a bit twee. Who amongst us would choose to spend an evening in the company of sprightly lad or a rose lipped maiden?

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 05:44 AM

"The troubles of our proud and angry dust
are from eternity and shall not fail.
Bear them we can, and if we can we must.
Shoulder the sky, my lad, and drink your ale."

Can't argue with that.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Joe_F
Date: 08 Feb 08 - 08:51 PM

Good creatures, do you love your lives
And have you ears for sense?
Here is a knife like other knives,
That cost me eighteen pence.

I need but stick it in my heart
And down will come the sky,
And earth's foundations will depart
And all you folk will die.

*

I to my perils
Of cheat and charmer
Came clad in armour
    By stars benign.
Hope lies to mortals
And most believe her,
But man's deceiver
    Was never mine.

The thoughts of others
Were light and fleeting,
Of lovers' meeting
    Or luck or fame.
Mine were of trouble,
And mine were steady,
So I was ready
    When trouble came.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Joe_F
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 08:17 PM

The Grizzly Bear is fierce and wild.
He has devoured the Infant Child.
The Infant Child is not aware
It has been eaten by the Bear.

(Has appeared in a number of versions, but I think that one is the most likely.)

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: DannyC
Date: 09 Feb 08 - 09:06 PM

I once read a line attributed to Housman that validated my own unschooled but heartfelt encounter with song and poetry.   When a hi-strung teenager - after a stillness came over the remainder of our cramped house - I would often lowly tune into late night Philly radio. There were certain songs (not many) that delivered a physical thrill to me where my hair would stand on end at hearing certain passages sung there in the dark. (no, I am not talking about that other night activity - that was an activity set apart from what I am describing here - please get your mind out of the gutter.)   :-)

The little thrill became a secret guide that would draw me to a certain song or singer. The lure of my secret thrill was such that
I eventually went out and became a 5 or 6 night a week pub singer... kind of an 'in search of' thing.

In the 1980s I got chance to work for nearly a decade with an American musician who had won a Senior All-Ireland title on his instrument.   One day we were over his place having a few tunes and listening to records (remember records?) and he turns to me during a Dick Gaughan song and says, "Look what his singing of this song does to me." All of the hair on his arms bristled.

In his introduction to "The White Goddess", Robert Graves states "A.E. Housman's test of a pure poem was simple and practical: does it make the hairs of one's chin bristle if one repeats it silently while shaving? But he did not explain why the hairs should bristle." I was delighted to have found this passage. I was happy to report to my friend that I had located our Pythagoras - that our Phila./Brooklyn reactions to song had been validated by an honest to gawd high-brow with the right sort of edjakayshun and accent.   What a relief!!

In my singing pursuits these days I still get that occasional physical payoff - decribed elsewhere in Graves as being that mixed feeling of fear and exhaltation at being in the presence of something (well, exalted and fearful and awesome). These days - mostly in the 'big ballads' - it might be felt as a surprise desire to suddenly weep while going thru a passage. I now view this aspect of my experience of song and poetry as a gift - as something to cherish and Housman's words (thru Graves) have become an affirmation, and perhaps a benediction, for me.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 09:14 PM

Here is the original sentence (in _The Name and Nature of Poetry_):

Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because, if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: Riginslinger
Date: 10 Feb 08 - 09:21 PM

Probably the most important thing about A.E. Housman was the poetry that was destroyed after his death.
                      If he'd lived during the age of Alan Ginsberg, his influence would have been much greater, I think.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: DannyC
Date: 11 Feb 08 - 10:23 AM

"Experience has taught me, when I am shaving of a morning, to keep watch over my thoughts, because, if a line of poetry strays into my memory, my skin bristles so that the razor ceases to act."

Joe F,

Tx! That's better yet... wonderful.

Subject: RE: One and twenty - A E Housman sound poem
From: GUEST
Date: 09 May 08 - 02:05 AM

I've been trying to find a good men's group recording of Richard Nance's arrangement of "When I Was One and Twenty" -- this is the arrangement sung by the GMEA All-State Men's Chorus, mentioned by a previous poster.   I actually attended that live performance in 1999, and through the years, I've been intermittently trying to find a recording. Does anybody know any good recordings?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: One and Twenty (A E Housman) sound po
From: RTim
Date: 27 Sep 08 - 06:44 PM

Many, many years ago this poem was recorded by the Barrow Poets. It means a lot to me; although my first wife and I (She introduced me to the Barrow Poets) are divorced and I have a second wonderful wife (my ex-wife and I are still good friends) - I love this poem, and it brings back very warm and loving memories. Tim Radford Who is very lucky to have had two such wonderful women in his life.