Analysis of The Purple Cow Parodies
Carolyn Wells 1862 (Rahway) – 1942
Gelett Burgess' original poem…
A Purple Cow
I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one.
Poem parodied in the
style of…
Hence, vain, deluding cows.
The herd of folly, without colour bright,
How little you delight,
Or fill the Poet's mind, or songs arouse!
But, hail! thou goddess gay of feature!
Hail divinest purple creature!
Oh, Cow, thy visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight.
And though I'd like, just once, to see thee
I never, never, never'd be thee!
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Hail to thee, blithe spirit!
Cow thou never wert;
But in life to cheer it
Playest thy full part
In purple lines of unpremeditated art.
The pale purple colour
Melts around thy sight
Like a star, but duller,
In the broad daylight.
I'd see thee, but I would not be thee if I might.
We look before and after
At the cattle as they browse;
Our most hearty laughter
Something sad must rouse.
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of Purple Cows.
A cow of purple is a joy forever.
Its loveliness increases. I have never
Seen this phenomenon. Yet ever keep
A brave lookout; lest I should be asleep
When she comes by. For, though I would not be one,
I've oft imagined 'twould be a joy to see one.
She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dee;
A Cow whom there were few to praise
And very few to see.
A violet by a mossy stone
Greeting the smiling East
Is not so purple, I must own,
As that erratic beast.
She lived unknown, that Cow, and so
I never chanced to see;
But if I had to be one, oh,
The difference to me!
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;
I watched them slowly wend their weary way,
But, ah, a Purple Cow I did not see.
Full many a cow of purplest ray serene
Is haply grazing where I may not see;
Full many a donkey writes of her, I ween,
But neither of these creatures would I be.
Lord Alfred Tennyson
Ask me no more. A cow I fain would see
Of purple tint, like to a sun-soaked grape -
Of purple tint, like royal velvet cape -
But such a creature I would never be -
Ask me no more.
All that I know
Of a certain Cow
Is it can throw,
Somewhere, somehow,
Now a dart of red,
Now a dart of blue
(That makes purple, 'tis said).
I would fain see, too,
This Cow that darkles the red and the blue!
Dante G. Rossetti
The purple cow strayed in the glade;
(Oh, my soul! but the milk is blue!)
She strayed and strayed and strayed and strayed
(And I wail and I cry Wa-hoo!).
I've never seen her - nay, not I;
(Oh, my soul! but the milk is blue!)
Yet were I that cow I should want to die.
(And I wail and I cry Wa-hoo!).
But in vain my tears I strew.
Somewhere in some faked nature place,
In Wonderland, in Nonsense Land,
Two darkling shapes met face to face,
And bade each other stand.
'And who are you?' said each to each;
'Tell me your title, anyhow.'
One said, 'I am the Papal Bull,'
'And I the Purple Cow.'
In the old ten-acre pasture,
Lookin' eastward toward a tree,
There's a Purple Cow a-settin'
And I know she thinks of me.
For the wind is in the gum-tree,
And the hay is in the mow,
And the cow-bells are a-calling
'Come and see a Purple Cow!'
But I am not going now,
Not at present, anyhow,
For I am not fond of purple, and
I can't abide a cow;
No, I shall not go today,
Where the Purple Cattle play.
But I think I'd rather see one
Than to be one, anyhow.
Edgar Allan Poe
Open then I flung a shutter,
And, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a Purple Cow which gayly tripped around my floor.
Not the least obeisance made she,
Not a moment stopped or stayed she,
But with mien of chorus lady perched herself above my door.
On a dusty bust of Dante perched and sat above my door.
And that Purple Cow unflitting
Still is sitting - still is sitting
On that dusty bust of Dante just above my chamber door,
And her horns have all the seeming
Of a demon'
Scheme | x a abab xx cddceeddff f xxxgg ededd ecexc eehhbb ifif jkjk lflf mfmfxfbf b fnnfo lalapqpqq f rQrQ sQsQq tutu xaxa efbfflva aaxammba l eeoffoo avo vb |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010010010 0101 11010101 1101111 1111110 1101111 1010000 11 110101 011100111 110101 1101011101 111101110 111010 11110111 11011101 011111111 11010111 10110 111110 11101 101111 1111 0101111 01101 10111 101110 0011 111111111111 1101010 1010111 1011010 10111 1010111111101 01110101010 110101110 110101101 011111101 11111111111 110101101111 1101011 010111 01110111 010111 01001011 100101 11110111 110101 11011101 110111 11111111 010011 0101011101 01011101001 1111011101 1101011111 1100111101 111011111 11001011011 1101110111 110100 1111011111 1101110111 1101110101 1101011101 1111 1111 10101 1111 11 10111 10111 111011 11111 111101001 101010 01011001 11110111 11010101 01101111 11010111 11110111 1011111111 01101111 1011111 1011101 0100101 1111111 011101 01111111 1111010 11110101 010101 00111010 1100101 1010101 0111111 10110011 0011001 00111010 1010101 1111101 111010 111111100 110101 1111101 1010101 11111011 111110 10101 10111010 011001010 01101011110111 101111 10101111 111110101010111 101011101010111 011011 11101110 111011101011101 00111010 1010 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 3,894 |
Words | 790 |
Sentences | 51 |
Stanzas | 28 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 4, 2, 10, 1, 5, 5, 5, 6, 4, 4, 4, 8, 1, 5, 9, 1, 4, 5, 4, 4, 8, 8, 1, 7, 3, 2 |
Lines Amount | 122 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 105 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 27 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 30, 2023
- 3:59 min read
- 72 Views
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"The Purple Cow Parodies" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/42704/the-purple-cow-parodies>.
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