Is My Team Plowing

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The author of the poem “Is My Team Plowing” Alfred Edward Housman also known as A.E. Housman was born in Worcestershire, England on March 26, 1859 and died in 1936 of cancer. He was the oldest of his siblings, and at the age of 12 he lost his mother due to death. A few years after that he became an atheist and also a homosexual while he attended St. John’s College and studied classical moderations and Greek and Roman classics. He believed he was going to forever be alone because the one and only time he fell in love was with another guy that was not gay, and the guy that broke his heart which made him think he was going to be alone which is what influenced most of him poems. He was also known for his Latinist and poetry in his country. Also he was famous for a lot of his poems in his country, including “Is My Team Plowing”. The poem “Is My Team Plowing” was written in 1896, the theme and overall meaning of the poem is that life continues on after someone passes away. Also the tone of the poem is conversational because the poem is a conversation between a deceased man and his friend who is alive.
In the poem there are several poetic techniques; one of the techniques is the rhyming scheme. The rhyming scheme is abcb which is where the second and fourth lines rhyme for example “Is my team ploughing, that I was used to drive and hear the harness jingle When I was man alive?'”. Throughout the whole poem the second and fourth lines ending words all rhyme. Another technique is imagery throughout the poem he describes all the things he remembers in his life when he was alive such as his horses he says, “Ay, the horses trample, the harness jingles now”. He says this because he remembers the sounds that the horses made when he used to ride...

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...sk his last question which was, “And has he found to sleep in, A better bed than mine?'”. Then the friend replies in the next stanza that he is fine and sleeps well and also he adds that he “cheers a dead man's sweetheart” and told him to never ask whom it was and he says this to infer that it is the deceased man’s sweetheart that he is comforting and he does not want the deceased man to know.
In conclusion, this poem is a dramatization because the friend is full of guilt and imagines having this conversation with his deceased friend. Then the main purpose of this poem is to state that even though somebody in your life passes away life goes on. Also it explains that some situations may change when that person leaves but overtime things will get better. Then it also it explains that you should not grieve over someone too long because things get better in due time.

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