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 A.E. Housman