A.E Housman published his remarkable poem, "Is My Team Ploughing" in 1896. Specifically, I find this poem quite interesting because it confronts us with the sad reality that, no matter how indispensable we may think we are, life would go on normally without us when we die.
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Is My Team Ploughing is a brilliant dialogue between a dead man and his living friend. The dead man wants to know whether life is still going on smoothly following his death.
Therefore, he asks his living friend about several things he enjoyed doing while alive. The dead man talks about football, his erstwhile girlfriend, whom he loved quite well, and several other subjects.
Interestingly, his living friend gives him answers which suggest that life is going on smoothly without him. Towards the end of the poem, however, the dead man's friend implies that he is now dating the girl whom his friend left behind. At climax, the dead man is silenced by his friend who becomes uncomfortable with the probe.**
Above all, Is my Team Ploughing reminds everyone of us that we would one day die and the world will never standstill. In fact, life will go on and our roles will be assumed by both known and unknown people.
Enjoy the poem, Is My Team Ploughing
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.
References
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Is_My_Team_Ploughing
http://samueldpoetry.blogspot.com.ng/2016/04/analysis-of-is-my-team-ploughing-by-e.html?m=1
http://intropoetrylnicolosi.qwriting.qc.cuny.edu/2014/02/10/is-my-team-ploughing-a-e-housman/
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