"The Cow" Robert Louis Stevenson The friendly cow all red and white, I love with all my heart: She gives me cream with all her might, To eat with apple-tart. She wanders lowing here and there, And yet she cannot stray, All in the pleasant open air, The pleasant light of day; And blown by all the winds that pass And wet with all the showers, She walks among the meadow grass And eats the meadow flowers. | Robert Louis Stevenson was an extraordinary man, who lived with vehement vibrance all his own, he was never one to bow down to fate and he toke his future into his own hands. From abandoning the family trade and renouncing religion to tropical voyages on the high seas, and romantic chases across the Americas. Stevenson never let being dealt a bad hand dampen his spirits and his life is one quite as miraculous as the stories and poetry he wrote during it, if you wish to read a more enumerated account of his life I covered it a little more thoroughly in my analysis of "Where Go the Boats," which is linked below. |
"The friendly cow all red and white" may be the most angelic animal ever eulogized, the poems speakers wastes no time in stating clearly that "I love her with all my heart:". From here he proceeds to back up his confession with supporting details such as, "She gives me cream with all her might, to eat with apple tart." inferring that his cow is both sweet and compliant, almost living to serve, a halcyon image indeed. The quote about apple tart provides a wee bit of scrumptious imagery while keeping the tone innocent and naive, as though the sole purpose of cream to be consumed along side apple tart, not part of an earning or a minor ingredient in a larger whole, but a individual star that is an independent entity of flavor. The second stanza's continues to describe the charming life of "The Cow," as "She wanders lowing here and there," a laid-back existence truly. The next line's meaning is a little more elusive, "And yet she cannot stray," the line seems a little out of place, does this simply mean she cannot become lost? Straying is generally given a negative connotation, so not straying must be oppositely positive. If so the innocence and joviality of poem is restored, but if this a comment regarding the cow's freedom, it suddenly becomes a little darker. However, the next line sees the return of "The Cow"'s arcadian lifestyle spent "All in the pleasant open air, the pleasant light of day;" what large grazing herbivore would not wish to live as one with the rural beauty of such heavenly natural surroundings? It seems unlikely that this cow could anything but comfortable, despite her captivity "And [being] blown by winds that pass and wet by all the showers," and yet "She walks among the meadow grass and eats the meadow flowers." Almost as if she is consciously aware that the wind and rain are necessary for the facilitation of her peaceful life. She seems to placidly understand that the meadow grass and flowers require the breezes and sprinklings just as much as the "Open air" and "light of day". Stevenson presents her life is simple because she has left it to remain that way, if she had protested against being milked or being placed in a pasture, if she employed the energy to detest the storms and gales she wouldn't lead the idyllic life she does. By living in the pleasures of the moment and accepting all that comes to pass with a sagacious calm she has created her own happiness. Maybe we should all live like cows, I'll admit a life, filled day to night with harmony and nourishing fare does have it's merits.
The arrangement of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Cow," is extraordinarily simple and traditional. Written in the ballad stanza of northern and western European verse(meaning they consist of quatrains, or four lined poetic paragraphs) accompanied by the characteristic ballad meter or the use of articulate iambic tetrameter(eight syllables) alternating with iambic trimeter(six syllables). However, though the rhyme scheme of "The Cow" is not the standard ABCB of ballad's but an ABAB pattern more characteristic of children's verse, the engaging rhyme is appealing to all ages nonetheless and is particularly memorable for it's eloquence and light-hearted tone. A hint of repetition between the final two lines is the extent of Stevenson's use of poetic devices, he keeps his poetry basic, which is one of the reasons it can be so easily enjoyed by anyone, at any time in any mood, it's universal because of it's general candor.
"The Cow," is a beautiful example of the charisma of modest poetry, classic and pure the poem begs to read at bedsides to drowsy children, an audible delight to both reader and listener. Because of it's hopeful and idealistic tone, it is a piece that cannot help but make anyone feel cheerful just by reading it. Though there are moments in which, such raw elation can make one feel silly and naive, as if it were embarrassing to relish in a life, uncluttered by material pleasures. The humiliation is all ours if we should consider ourselves too complex for amicable gratification. A sickly and often bed-ridden child Stevenson wrote the poems of "A Children's Garden of Verses," to bring untainted jubilation and excitement to the lives of children, hoping perhaps that they might find the same delectation in his composition that he did in the fairy tales and poetry read to him by his own bedside. In addition to adventure and amusement, Stevenson sought to give his poetry moral substance, maybe he found something valuable in bible stories that occupied his days spent ill. Anyways, an embrace of the potential serenity of life seems to be Stevenson's moral and he achieves it astutely.