When I was One-and-Twenty
To keep or to give away?

When you were in year 10, what advice
did your teachers or any seniors give you?
Do you keep them or give them away?
When you were in year 10:
When you are in year 11:
What to keep
What did you keep?
(friendship, punctuality, family
bond…)
What to give away
(part-time job, computer games,
comic books…)
What did you give away?
When the poet was in love…

Do the first reading and fill in the blanks
according to the poem.
When he was 21:
What to keep
When he is 22:
What did he keep
What to give away
What did he give away
Verse vs. Prose

Verse:
stanza
rhyming schemes
rhythm

Prose:
paragraph
Figurative speech in the poem
crowns and pounds and guineas
 heart, fancy, sighs

What do they represent in real life?
Point of view

Why did the poet use the first person
point of view instead of the second or the
third?
-personal experience, persuasiveness, …
Post-reading activity I

Listen to a love song: Roses are red
and fill in the blank.
Post-reading activity II
Have students rewrite the poem by
replacing the missing words.
 When I was One-and-Twenty

Extra assignment
Change the poem into the form of a letter
and use the first person point of view
writing to your best friend.
Thank
you very much!
Roses Are Red / Bobby Vinton
A) blue
B) name
A long, long time ago, on
graduation day.
You handed me your book ... I
signed this way:
"Roses are red, my love.
Violets are __1___.
Sugar is sweet, my love.
But not as sweet as you."
We dated through high school.
And when the big day came,
I wrote into your book,
next to my__2___:
"Roses are red, my love.
Violets are __1___.
Sugar is sweet, my love.
But not as sweet as you."
Then I went far away and you
found someone__3___.
I read your letter dear, and I wrote
back to you:
"Roses are red, my love.
Violets are __1___.
Sugar is sweet, my love.
But luck may god bless you."
Is that your little girl?
She looks a lot like you.
Someday some boy will write
in her book,__4___.
C) new
D) too
"Roses are red, my love.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet, my love.
But not as sweet as you."
Love Poem
/ A.E. Housman
When I was one-and-twenty
I heard a wise man say,
"Give ________ and ________ and ________
But not your heart away;
Give ________ away and ________
But keep your ________ 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 ________ out of the ________
Was never given in vain;
'Tis paid with ________ aplenty
And sold for endless ________."
And I am two-and-twenty
And oh, 'tis true, 'tis true.