Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CO' BOSS, by EDWARD MERRILL ROOT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CO' BOSS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Co' boss, co' boss!' he calls
Last Line: "co' boss"" across the wall."
Alternate Author Name(s): Root, E. Merrill
Subject(s): Shepherds & Shepherdesses


"Co' Boss, Co' Boss!" he calls
Across the heaped stone-walls.
The brown, deliberate cows
Stare as he shouts, then browse
With placid deep-lunged "Whoofs!"
And calm, unhurrying hoofs.

"Co' Boss, Co' Boss!" he calls;
And now a birch bar falls --
He drops the long bars down
To let the browsing brown
Rich-uddered Jerseys thru:
But they stand still and chew.

"Co' Boss, Co' Boss!" And now
At last a single cow
Obeys his sultry shout
And ambles bawling out;
Then out (quite nonchalantly)
Sidle the other three.

Each night, since he was eight,
He's called cows thru this gate
And he is fifty now --
This servant of a cow.
He'll call "Co' Boss" until
Mould chokes his old mouth still:
Then other men will call
"Co' Boss" across the wall.





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