Is My Team Ploughing?

"Is My Team Ploughing?" is the first song of Bob Scher's Five Songs from "A Shropshire Lad". The song cycle sets the poetry of A. E. Housman.

Date: 2007Composer: Bob ScherText: A. E. HousmanSong Collection: Five Songs from "A Shropshire Lad"

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“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.

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