A straightforward, affectionate portrait of a cow grazing in the meadow, giving cream for apple tart and getting rained on without complaint. The gentle rhythm and everyday farmyard detail suit pointing-and-naming reading with toddlers who already know what a cow looks like.
From A Child's Garden of Verses. See the whole collection.
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 pass
And wet with all the showers,
She walks among the meadow grass
And eats the meadow flowers.
About this poem
From A Child's Garden of Verses (1885)
Another from Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses, published in 1885. It reads like a small child's whole idea of a cow. She is friendly, red and white, and she makes the cream for your apple tart. Stevenson sticks to what a young child would really notice: the colours, the wandering, the weather she stands out in. There is no hidden meaning to hunt for. It is a cow, seen plainly and liked.
A good daytime poem, and lovely after you have seen real cows in a field or a picture book. Ask your child what colour their cow is. On the line where she wanders lowing here and there, give a long low moo. It also sits well near the end of the day, being calm and unhurried.
Public domain. Text from A Child's Garden of Verses (Robert Louis Stevenson, 1885), via Project Gutenberg. View the source edition