IS MY TEAM PLOUGHING?

A.E. Housman 1859-1936

This poem is No.XXVII in the poet's A SHROPSHIRE LAD (1896)

The following 8 verses report a conversation between a dead man and his still living friend.

“Is my team ploughing, 

   That I was used to drive 

And hear the harness jingle 

   When I was man alive?” 

Ay, the horses trample, 

   The harness jingles now; 

No change though you lie under 

   The land you used to plough. 

“Is football playing 

   Along the river shore, 

With lads to chase the leather, 

   Now I stand up no more?” 

Ay the ball is flying, 

   The lads play heart and soul; 

The goal stands up, the keeper 

   Stands up to keep the goal. 

“Is my girl happy, 

   That I thought hard to leave, 

And has she tired of weeping 

   As she lies down at eve?” 

Ay, she lies down lightly, 

   She lies not down to weep: 

Your girl is well contented. 

   Be still, my lad, and sleep. 

“Is my friend hearty, 

   Now I am thin and pine, 

And has he found to sleep in 

   A better bed than mine?” 

Yes, lad, I lie easy, 

   I lie as lads would choose; 

I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart, 

   Never ask me whose.

Housman was an English scholar and poet whose poetry greatly appealed to late Victorian and Edwardian taste. Many of his poems have been set to music by early 20th century English composers.

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