A.E.Housman's poem "Is My Team Ploughing?" is an imaginary
conversation between the young farmer who is now dead and the poet narrator. The dead
'ploughman' ask a series of questions to the poet narrator which are answered patiently
by him. The gist of the answers by the poet narrator are that the death of the ploughman
has made no difference and life goes on as usual:
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No change though you lie
under
The land you used to
plough
Finally, the dead man
is anxious to know whether his lover is still mourning for him. The poet
narrator, assures him that it is he who is now caring and comforting
her.
"Whose" in the last line obviously
refers to the former lover of the dead man. The poet narrator doesn't
want to reveal to the dead man the truth that it is he who has become her lover because
he does not want to make him jealous.
The message of the
poem is that life continues to go on irrespective of some one's death. Lovers's vows and
marriage oaths are null and void once a partner dies.
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