In rural parts of England, today, January 11, is celebrated as Plough Monday.

I didn’t know this until I did a google search to learn more about a poem that I heard for the first time while traveling in Ireland last August.

The poem has a few different names--the ‘Farmer's Toast,’ ‘God-speed the Plough,’ and ‘Farmers Arms’—as well as a few different versions. It was set to a tune and sung by ploughmen back in medieval times. Here is one:

“Let the wealthy and great live in splendor and state.

I envy them not, I declare it.

For I grow my own rams, my own ewes, my own lambs,

And I shear my own fleece and I wear it.

By plowing and sowing and reaping and mowing,

All nature provides me with plenty

With a cellar well stored and a plentiful board,

And my garden affords every dainty.

For here I am king. I can dance, drink and sing.

Let no one approach as a stranger.

I will hunt when it's quiet. Come on, let us try it!

Dull thinking drives anyone crazy.

I have lawns and bowers. I have fruits and flowers,

And the lark is my morning alarmer.

So you jolly boys now, here's god-speed the plow.

Long life and success to the farmer.”

I like the poem’s simple phrases and steady cadence. Read it with an Irish brogue (even though it’s English) and it sounds even better.

My google search yielded the following information about the poem from a few sources:

-Plough Monday is the first Monday after Epiphany, Jan. 6. Plough Monday was an important ritual for farm workers in east England for centuries. It gave them the opportunity to make some money at a difficult time of year. In medieval times, the ploughboys were supposed to return to work on Plough Monday, the start of the new ploughing season. Instead, the plough was paraded through the streets with the aim to extort money from wealthy landowners.

-The exploits of the farmworkers varied, depending upon the region of the country they came from. Some ploughboys danced, with and without swords. Some performed seasonal folk plays. The penance for non-payment was to have the front doorstep pulled up with the plough. The itinerant ploughboys would blacken their faces as a disguise, a tradition still practiced today.

-Plough Monday was recognized as early as the 1400s. Back then, it was often connected to raising parish funds through the church. Plough guilds often maintained plough lights in the church and money was raised to keep the plough light burning. The Reformation in 1538 forbad these plough lights, abolished the plough guilds and fined people who participated.

-After the mid-1600s, Plough Monday festivities became an opportunity for groups of farmworkers to collect money for their personal gain, often ending in a feast for themselves and their families. Plough Monday is still celebrated in some small villages with parades, plays and blessing of the ploughs.

It’s hard for me to imagine weather warm enough in early January, even in east England, to be able to plow ground. I am sure they had variable weather conditions back then, too.

Nonetheless, it is a warming thought, isn’t it? Plowing conjures up images of the coming spring and thawing soil. A new growing season.

One can dream.