Is my team ploughing | Is my team ploughing

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)

Is my team ploughing

Language: English

Our translations: FRE HEB

"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.

Available sung texts: ← What is this?

• R. Vaughan Williams

R. Vaughan Williams sets stanzas 1-2, 5-8

About the headline (FAQ)

Text Authorship:

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 27, first published 1896 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Benjamin Burrows (1891 - 1966), "Is my team ploughing", 1927 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by George Sainton Kaye Butterworth (1885 - 1916), "Is my team ploughing", published 1911 [ voice and piano ], from Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Alfred Redgrave Cripps (1882 - 1950), "Is my team ploughing", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ], from Nine "Shropshire Lad" Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Is my team ploughing", 1918, published 1926 [ baritone, string quartet, and piano ], from The Western Playland, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893 - 1976), "Is my team ploughing", published 1925-7 [ tenor and piano ], from Five Songs from "A Shropshire Lad" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ned Rorem (1923 - 2022), "Is my team ploughing", 1997, published 1999, from Evidence of Things Not Seen, no. 23 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958), "Is my team ploughing", 1908-9, published 1911, stanzas 1-2, 5-8 [ tenor, piano, and string quartet ad libitum ], from On Wenlock Edge, no. 3 [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "Is my team ploughing" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 168