Housman's poem, "When I Was One-and-Twenty" is an older man reflecting on his youth. The speaker is a young man but he indicates that he has learned much in one year. The themes of the poem are associated with the pain of love and how youth can be fleeting and ignorant. The speaker uses the advice of the old man to help the speaker realize these things.

             With this ballad, written in the classical ode style, the speaker is communicating a painful message about love, especially young love. This is a lesson that he must learn himself. The old man's advice, however wise it may be, falls on deaf ears, illustrating how young people often believe they know enough about the world to make wise choices. In the last two lines of the first stanza, the speaker states that he knew nothing and it was useless to talk to him because he was 21 years old. The poem is a reflection when the speaker is looking back to the old man's advice, "Give crowns and pounds and guineas/But not your heart away" (Housman 3-4). While his first response to this advice is lackadaisical, the speaker realizes the truth by the end of the poem. .

             The poem is constructed in such a way that each stanza represents two different perspectives. The first stanza is a symbol for the speaker's inexperience and lack of knowledge. We can also see with the poem's structure how the speaker is illustrating the difference between him and the old man. The first stanza is more eloquent and the majority of it focuses on what the old man has to say. The old man suggests that it is wiser to "give away pearls and rubies" (5) than allow oneself to be trapped in a relationship. The speaker also reveals his lack of knowledge of understanding to what the old man was telling him with the last two lines of the stanza. The advice is practically useless to one who is young and in love. There is a twist with this poem, in that the second stanza reveals the truth of the old man's wisdom, even though only one year has passed.