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.

by Alfred Edward Housman (1859-1936) , no title, from A Shropshire Lad, no. 27, published 1896

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

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.
by Alfred Redgrave Cripps (1882-1950) , "Is my team ploughing", published <<1940 [voice and piano], from Nine "Shropshire Lad" Songs, no. ?
by Ivor Gurney (1890-1937) , "Is my team ploughing", published 1926 [baritone, string quartet, and piano], from The Western Playland, no. 6.
by Charles Wilfred Orr (1893-1976) , "Is my team ploughing", published 1925-7 [tenor and piano], from Five Songs from "A Shropshire Lad", no. ?
by Ned Rorem (1923-) , "Is my team ploughing", 1997, published 1999, from Evidence of Things Not Seen, no. 23.
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 lib], from On Wenlock Edge, no. 3.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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