'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.
|
A.E. Housman |
Classic Poems |
|
[ Bredon Hill ] [ Clunton and Clunbury ] [ 'Is my team ploughing ] [ Parta Quies ] [ On Wenlock Edge the wood's in trouble; ] [ Loveliest of trees, the cherry now ] [ The Merry Guide ] [ 'Tis time, I think by Wenlock Town ] [ When I came last to Ludlow ] [ When I was one-and-twenty ] |