when i was one and twenty

Hi
could you please explain to me why Housman shaid "one-and-twenty" instead of "twenty-one"
Thanks

It sounds prettier?

I was gonna say the exact same thing, it just sounds better ;)..

in the 19th century and before that was the style of saying age, in all the poems and novels of the period, the custom to say 20 and 5, or 40 and 6 instead of 25 or 46, because that was the way it simply was.

Of course the natural reaction is but surely saying 25 is better, because it is more concise and shorter. And I agree, but then again saying "thrice" my age is more concise and shorter than saying "three times" my age, but then the former was used and now we use the latter.

So yea, just customs of language which we are obeisant to just as much as they were.

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Originally Posted by lost man

Hi
could you please explain to me why Housman shaid "one-and-twenty" instead of "twenty-one"
Thanks

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well I am guessing that customs and habbits of telling one's age has not really changed throughout the ages. People are still very self conscious about their ages, women for sounding older and men for sounding too young.
In victorian time that was the way they told their age.
So I would say that saying 'one and twenty' is better then 'twenty one' because the former takes the 'one' away from '21' and makes it sound closer to 'twenty'.
another example:
'five and twenty' sounds better then 'twenty five' because the first one sounds that you are still in your 'twenties'. It is psychological I think.

'four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie
when the pie was opened, the birds began to sing
wasn't it a dainty dish to set before the king?'

I would have to agree with Alexander that that was the normal way of expressing numbers in the 19th century. It was the Germanic way, as it is still practiced in Dutch and German. The modern and French way of saying numbers only occurred in the last half of the 19th century.

I expect Housman was being lyrical (it depends when he wrote the poem you are referring to). The Germanic numbering way must have stayed behind in lyrical language when it comes to written language.

It is probably now still around in dialects.

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Originally Posted by Silas Thorne

'four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie
when the pie was opened, the birds began to sing
wasn't it a dainty dish to set before the king?'

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Hummm...not it wasn't haha:p

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Originally Posted by lost man

Hi
could you please explain to me why Housman shaid "one-and-twenty" instead of "twenty-one"
Thanks

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Scansion.

Then there was the song with the line:
"Then I turned one and twenty, and the world turned upside down."

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Originally Posted by PeterL

Then there was the song with the line:
"Then I turned one and twenty, and the world turned upside down."

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Now that's a song haha.:smilewinkgrin:

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Originally Posted by cacian

Now that's a song haha.:smilewinkgrin:

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Yes, it is, but I can't find the full lyrics for it.