Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Is my team ploughing

Alfred Edward Housman

“Is my team ploughing” as printed in A Shropshire Lad (1896).

Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics Text 18 1896 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsVictorian song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from A Shropshire Lad, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

'Is my team ploughing,

That I was used to drive

And hear the harness jingle

When I was man alive?'

Verse 2

Ay, the horses trample,

The harness jingles now;

No change though you lie under

The land you used to plough.

Verse 3

'Is football playing

Along the river shore,

With lads to chase the leather,

Now I stand up no more?'

Verse 4

Ay, the ball is flying,

The lads play heart and soul;

The goal stands up, the keeper

Stands up to keep the goal.

Verse 5

'Is my girl happy,

That I thought hard to leave,

And has she tired of weeping

As she lies down at eve?'

Verse 6

Ay, she lies down lightly,

She lies not down to weep:

Your girl is well contented.

Be still, my lad, and sleep.

Verse 7

'Is my friend hearty,

Now I am thin and pine,

And has he found to sleep in

A better bed than mine?

Verse 8

Yes, lad, I lie easy,

I lie as lads would choose;

I cheer a dead man's sweetheart,

Never ask me whose.

Credits

Written by Alfred Edward Housman

Words by Alfred Edward Housman. Historical text published in A Shropshire Lad (1896); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

A Shropshire Lad (1896), “Is my team ploughing”

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) died more than 89 years ago; his works entered the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions in 2007, and the 1896 first edition is in the public domain in the United States. Entries credited to other hands are held unless their author died more than 70 years ago.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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