The Cow That Trod on the Mouse
Oh cow, oh cow
Wherefore art thou. Thou big brown cow?
What did you step on that mouse for?
You clumsy old thing.
That poor mouse was contemplatin?
Days gone and to come
And cos you didn?t look where you were going
It?s now in the bin.
Oh cow, oh cow,
You?ve really done it now
I?m boycottin? your milk
You stupid old thing
A review ? British Literary Review
Sir BD?s poem is imbued with the twenty-first century. It is the here and now which the poet maps italicizing the fragility of mouse life. We internalize loss. We are blessed to the extent that we keep, and err to the extent which we neglect caring about mice. What we have to do BD does not explicitly state; it is implied. (It involves the hazards of cows.) Opposites are yoked (cows vs. mice), making a certain burnished irony a signpost of the poet. Idiosyncratically, one turns back and gazes ahead in order to re-find the inner mouse.
