Cheesy Advice

This illustrates how much bad poetry and cliched sentiment you can get away with if you just sing it pretty, with harmony. The French, by the way, is the same as the English, in case you missed it.

I don't care.  I still like it.

 

The poetry here is a bit better, and we get the message that Houseman is making fun of us, not joining us in regarding such things as great steps forward in wisdom.

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.