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IS MY TEAM PLOUGHING

“Is my team ploughing,
That I was used to drive
And hear the harness jingle
When I was man alive?”
Aye, 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?”
Aye, 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?”
Aye, 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 than mine?”
Yes, lad. I lie easy,
I lie as lads would choose;
I cheer a dead man’s sweetheart,
Never ask me whose.

 

A. E. Houseman (1859 – 1936)

 

Poem’s Paraphrase:
     The man who was told in the poem used to drive plough with his friends (as a team) when he was alive. Even though, the man had been buried of his death, there is no change about the land he had ploughed after his death, the horses trample on the land with the ordinary sound of horses’ harness; everything goes on as usual. Some lads keep playing football along the river shore, and they keep making some goals. The man’s girl (might be his wife) sleeps lightly, and she does not seem change their behavior in sleeping though her man had died; in addition, she is well contented. His friends look hearty and live in a better place (real world) while the man lives in his rest place (grave) with thin, and pine body.

Moral Value:
     From the above paraphrase, the writer can draw conclusion that “there is no immortality as Housman believed, in this universe; everything in the world will be dead. One important thing is that the humans’ death would never change or disturb the world they have left, the human life is dead as it is; and everything would go on as usual after the death.”

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