Analysis of The Cow
Bernard O'Dowd 1866 (Beaufort) – 1953
THIS is a rune I ravelled in the still,
Arrogant stare of an Australian cow—
‘These prankt intruders of the hornless brow,
Puffed up with strange illusions of their skill
To fence, to milk, to fatten and to kill,
Once worshipped me with temple, rite and vow,
Crowned me with stars, and bade rapt millions bow
Before what abject guess they called my will!
‘To-day, this flunkey of my midden, Man,
Throws child-oblations in my milking byre,
Stifles in slums to spare me lordly fields,
Flatters with spotless consorts my desire,
And for a pail of cream his birth-right yields,
As once in Egypt, Hellas, Ind, Iran!’
Scheme | ABBAABBA XCDCDX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110111001 1001110101 1101010101 1111010111 1111110011 1101110101 1111011101 0111011111 11111111 11101101 100111111 111011010 0101111111 110101101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 684 |
Words | 110 |
Sentences | 3 |
Stanzas | 2 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 6 |
Lines Amount | 14 |
Letters per line (avg) | 34 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 239 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 54 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 124 Views
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"The Cow" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/4284/the-cow>.
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