Is My Team Ploughing

Alfred Edward 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. 

Next 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : It Nods And Curtseys And Recovers
• Alfred Edward Housman : Loitering With A Vacant Eye
• Alfred Edward Housman : Look Not In My Eyes, For Fear
• Alfred Edward Housman : Loveliest Of Trees, The Cherry Now
• Alfred Edward Housman : March
• Alfred Edward Housman : Now Hollow Fires Burn Out To Black
• Alfred Edward Housman : O Why Do You Walk ( A Parody )
• Alfred Edward Housman : Oh Fair Enough Are Sky And Plain
• Alfred Edward Housman : Oh See How Thick The Goldcup Flowers
• Alfred Edward Housman : Oh Stay At Home, My Lad

Previous 10 Poems

• Alfred Edward Housman : Into My Heart An Air That Kills
• Alfred Edward Housman : In Valleys Of Springs And Rivers
• Alfred Edward Housman : In My Own Shire, If I Was Sad
• Alfred Edward Housman : If Truth In Hearts That Perish
• Alfred Edward Housman : If By Chance Your Eye Offend You
• Alfred Edward Housman : I Hoed And Trenched And Weeded
• Alfred Edward Housman : Hughley Steeple
• Alfred Edward Housman : Ho, Everyone That Thirsteth
• Alfred Edward Housman : Here Dead We Lie
• Alfred Edward Housman : From Far, From Eve And Morning