Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE HIGHWAY COW, by EUGENE J. HALL


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HIGHWAY COW, by                    
First Line: The hue of her hide was dusky brown
Last Line: But the highway cow outlived them all.
Subject(s): Animals; Cows


THE hue of her hide was dusky brown,
Her body was lean and her neck was slim,
One horn was turned up and the other turned down,
She was keen of vision and long of limb;
With a Roman nose and a short stump tail,
And ribs like the hoops on a home-made pail.

Many a mark did her body bear;
She had been a target for all things known;
On many a scar the dusky hair
Would grow no more where it once had grown;
Many a passionate, parting shot
Had left upon her a lasting spot.

Many and many a well-aimed stone,
Many a brickbat of goodly size,
And many a cudgel swiftly thrown
Had brought the tears to her loving eyes,
Or had bounded off from her bony back
With a noise like the sound of a rifle-crack.

Many a day had she passed in the pound
For helping herself to her neighbor's corn;
Many a cowardly cur and hound
Had been transfixed on her crumpled horn;
Many a teapot and old tin pail
Had the farmer-boys tied to her time-worn tail.

Old Deacon Gray was a pious man,
Though sometimes tempted to be profane,
When many a weary mile he ran
To drive her out of his growing grain.
Sharp were the pranks she used to play
To get her fill and to get away.

She knew when the deacon went to town.
She wisely watched when he went by;
He never passed her without a frown,
And an evil gleam in each angry eye;
He would crack his whip in a surly way,
And drive along in his "one-horse shay."

Then at his homestead she loved to call,
Lifting his bars with crumpled horn;
Nimbly scaling his garden wall,
Helping herself to his standing corn;
Eating his cabbages, one by one,
Hurrying home when her work was done.

His human passions were quick to rise,
And striding forth with a savage cry,
With fury blazing from both his eyes
As lightnings flash in a summer sky,
Redder and redder his face would grow,
And after the creature he would go.

Over the garden, round and round,
Breaking his pear and apple crees;
Tramping his melons into the ground,
Overturning his hives of bees,
Leaving him angry and badly stung,
Wishing the old cow's neck was wrung.

The mosses grew on the garden wall,
The years went by with their work and play,
The boys of the village grew strong and tall,
And the gray-haired farmers passed away
One by one, as the red leaves fall;
But the highway cow outlived them all.





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