Dead Cow Farm

Robert Graves 1895 (Wimbledon) – 1985 (Deià)



An ancient saga tells us how
In the beginning the First Cow
(For nothing living yet had birth
But Elemental Cow on earth)
Began to lick cold stones and mud:
Under her warm tongue flesh and blood
Blossomed, a miracle to believe:
And so was Adam born, and Eve.
Here now is chaos once again,
Primeval mud, cold stones and rain.
Here flesh decays and blood drips red,
And the Cow’s dead, the old Cow’s dead.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

23 sec read
355

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEFGG
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 412
Words 78
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves was an English poet, scholar/translator/writer of antiquity specializing in Classical Greece and Rome, novelist and soldier in World War One. more…

All Robert Graves poems | Robert Graves Books

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