When the speaker of "When I was One-and-Twenty" announces his age in the first line of this poem, you know that it's important. And hey – maybe the journey from 21 to 22 is life-changing enough for him to be able to say that he's moved from youthful idealism into grown-up…cynicism? We're not saying that 21 is a young age – but, in our speaker's case, it's a past that's so long ago he can barely remember what it felt like. What a difference a year makes, huh?