The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #109817   Message #2320276
Posted By: Jim Dixon
19-Apr-08 - 05:01 PM
Thread Name: Lyr ADD: Is My Team Ploughing (A. E. Housman)
Subject: Lyr Add: IS MY TEAM PLOUGHING (A. E. Housman)
From A Shropshire Lad, by A. E. Housman, New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1923, page 38ff:

XXVII

'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.