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.
POETICAL BEAUTY AND ANALYSES
This poem exposes the vanity and cantankerous frivolity in life duly exposed after death. The poet draws his choice of words from the pool of everyday traditional and folk country side words.
In stanza one, the poetis persona makes reference to the days when he was alive and his exploration. He does this via a rhetorical question as well as using imagery and symbols to visualize its theme. He called his farm his team and the way he manages it.
A.E. Housman’s poem, “Is My Team Ploughing?”, is constructed as a conversation between the speaker and his living friend. The speaker is contacting him from the grave to ask how things have changed since his death. Every stanza that starts and ends with quotation marks tells us that they are from the voice of the speaker. Those without quotation marks are responses from the friend. The particular occasion could be that it is either the death anniversary of the speaker or his friend simply wanted to visit his grave. If the latter, it implies that the one who conversing with the speaker is his closest companion and not just a mere acquaintance.
The central purpose of this poem is to tell the audience that, in the simplest of terms, life goes on. Our deaths do not cause permanent disturbance in everyone’s lives. Certain situations may change, but they will gain back momentum in time.
This assumption is supported by the second stanza, “Aye, the horses trample, the harness jingles now; No change though you lie under, the land you used to plough”, the thirteenth and fourteenth lines, “Aye, the ball is still flying, the lads play heart and soul”, the twenty-first and twenty-second lines, “Aye, she lies down lightly, she lies down not to weep”, and the twenty-ninth line “Yes, lad, I lie easy”. (22) The fact that the speaker asks question of how things changed since his death tells us that he wants to feel as if his absence made a huge impact on those who surrounded him. In reality, it did not.
The twenty-fourth line, “Be still, my lad and sleep.
On a large note, the poem is a carrier of words and beauty. The allusion and illusion created is worthy of note.
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