Is My Team Ploughing

BY A. E. HOUSMAN

“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.