Filly:
What do you think:
Why should we swink?
Up and down so,
Year in, year out,
Ploughing and hoeing,
Never without
Their gee-ing and whoa-ing?
Gelding:
Not so bad, they -
I nicker, yea,
I neigh a little
At thought of their victual;
Surely, I say,
Not so bad they.
Old Mare:
Thou and thy victual!
Thou gelding, thou wittol!
Quicken thy pace!
Slack is thy trace -
And thou, froward filly,
Art but young and silly;
Content ye then therefore;
I, as the men folk,
Know of each day's yoke
The why and wherefore.
Filly:
Little reek I
Of their when and why.
I know when I rear
They have me in fear,
And hasten to tie me.
But once on the hill
I galloped my fill
And none dare come nigh me.
Old Mare:
'Twas ere I did train thee -
Now, as thou knowest,
When gallus thou goest
'Tis I that restrain thee.
Filly:
But slumbers my hate;
Deep in my brain
Ever I wait
To fear them again.
Gelding:
Wenches! go steady:
For belly saith now
Stable is ready Puts me in mind
And loosed from the plough
Turn we our faces
Farmward to go,
Jingling our traces,
All three in a row -
Pleasant is stable
When belly doth call.
Filly:
Aye! Pleasant is stable,
Tie-rope and stall!
To oxen pleasant
And shamed things like thee,
Content by a peasant
Chivvied to be.
The plough at thy haunch,
Day after day,
Then filling thy paunch
With doles of their hay -
Nor labour nor food
Chimes with my mood,
For the brisk wind
That shrills in my ear
Puts me in mind
Of the Spring of the year -
Of one who goes proudly,
Scorning the plough;
One who calls loudly,
Not such as thou!
Gelding:
I am as good a one
As e'er a stallion
That goeth nickering
By our farm gate-
But cease we our bickering,
Peace to thy prate.
For now from bin and stack
Plenished is crib and rack:
Come, let us be speedy.
Old Mare:
Go, wanton! Go, greedy!
Thou to thy dalliance,
Thou to thy meat!
Well may'st thou firk and prance
Thy idle feet!
I have seen come and pass
Many a summer's grass:
Ever did evil days
Follow new fangled ways;
And much I do misdoubt
That ere the year be out
Thou'lt learn, as thou starvest,
Short yokes make short harvest!
NOTES: A filly is a young female horse, usually until aged 3, whereafter they are referred to as a mare. A gelding is a castrated male horse.