April 7, 2009
-
Someone Else’s Poem a Day
IS MY TEAM PLOUGHING
by: A.E. Housman (1860-1936)
- ‘
S 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.
- That I was used to drive
- ‘
