The Cow
Lyrics
The friendly cow all red and white,I love with all my heart:She gives me cream with all her might,To eat with apple-tart.
She wanders lowing here and there,And yet she cannot stray,All in the pleasant open air,The pleasant light of day;
And blown by all the winds that passAnd wet with all the showers,She walks among the meadow grassAnd eats the meadow flowers.
History and Meaning
Stevenson titled it simply "The Cow", but generations of readers know it by its first line, and the poem is often listed as "The Friendly Cow". Twelve lines, three verses, and a piece of reasoning that only a child would bother to spell out: the cow is friendly because she supplies the cream for pudding.
Origins
The poem is one of the sixty-odd pieces in A Child's Garden of Verses, published in 1885. It was picked up quickly by compilers of school readers and primers, where its short lines and plain vocabulary made it a standard early recitation piece on both sides of the Atlantic.
Red and white is a real and once very common cattle marking in Britain, seen in breeds such as the Ayrshire, which Stevenson would have known from Scottish fields.
Meaning & Interpretation
The logic of the first verse is unashamedly self-interested, and Stevenson knows it. The child loves the cow with all his heart, and the reason given is apple-tart. He does not pretend to a nobler motive.
The second and third verses drop the child entirely and follow the animal. She wanders but cannot stray, because a field has a fence. She stands out in whatever weather arrives, blown by the winds and wet with the showers, and gets on with eating. Stevenson gives her a whole placid outdoor life in eight lines, and never returns to the boy or his pudding.
What does "lowing" mean?
Lowing is the long, low call cattle make, a softer word than mooing. It turns up often in older poems and carols, and here it describes the sound the cow makes as she moves around the field.
Why does the poem say the cow "cannot stray"?
She is in a fenced field, so she can wander freely inside it without ever getting lost. Stevenson is drawing a small distinction a child would enjoy: she has plenty of room to roam, but no way to leave.
Is The Cow the same poem as The Friendly Cow?
Yes. Stevenson's title is "The Cow", but because it opens with "The friendly cow all red and white", many anthologies and school readers index it under that phrase instead. Both names refer to the same twelve-line poem from 1885.
Related Nursery Rhymes
Lyrics from nurseryrhymes.info