Afternoon with Irish Cows
Hello everyone,
As promised here is the work I would like you to do for Billy Collins' "Afternoon with Irish Cows."
Remember, the key is for you to be ready for the IGCSE exams - as we are unlikely to be able to have enough time in class for thoughtful work on our poems.
For each of our remaining poems, I would like you to follow the same process.
1. take a blank sheet of A4 paper, which you will store in the Poetry section of your IGCSE binder (if you have not yet created/organised your binder, this is the ideal time to do so).
2. Write "An Afternoon With Irish Cows" at the top (duh!)
3. Write your answers and notes neatly, so you can later revise the information.
4. Let me know if you need any help.
7. How does the speaker give us a sense of time passing? Identify the quotes that emphasizes these events happen in the time of one afternoon. Also, look at the stanza structure… how is each stanza punctuated and what is the effect?
As promised here is the work I would like you to do for Billy Collins' "Afternoon with Irish Cows."
Remember, the key is for you to be ready for the IGCSE exams - as we are unlikely to be able to have enough time in class for thoughtful work on our poems.
For each of our remaining poems, I would like you to follow the same process.
1. take a blank sheet of A4 paper, which you will store in the Poetry section of your IGCSE binder (if you have not yet created/organised your binder, this is the ideal time to do so).
2. Write "An Afternoon With Irish Cows" at the top (duh!)
3. Write your answers and notes neatly, so you can later revise the information.
4. Let me know if you need any help.
Afternoon With Irish Cows
Billy Collins
Afternoon with Irish Cows
by Billy Collins
by Billy Collins
There were a few dozen who occupied the field
across the road from where we lived,
stepping all day from tuft to tuft,
their big heads down in the soft grass,
though I would sometimes pass a window
and look out to see the field suddenly empty
as if they had taken wing, flown off to another country.
across the road from where we lived,
stepping all day from tuft to tuft,
their big heads down in the soft grass,
though I would sometimes pass a window
and look out to see the field suddenly empty
as if they had taken wing, flown off to another country.
Then later, I would open the blue front door,
and again the field would be full of their munching
or they would be lying down
on the black-and-white maps of their sides,
facing in all directions, waiting for rain.
How mysterious, how patient and dumbfounded
they appear in the long quiet of the afternoon.
and again the field would be full of their munching
or they would be lying down
on the black-and-white maps of their sides,
facing in all directions, waiting for rain.
How mysterious, how patient and dumbfounded
they appear in the long quiet of the afternoon.
But every once in a while, one of them
would let out a sound so phenomenal
that I would put down the paper
or the knife I was cutting an apple with
and walk across the road to the stone wall
to see which one of them was being torched
or pierced through the side with a long spear.
would let out a sound so phenomenal
that I would put down the paper
or the knife I was cutting an apple with
and walk across the road to the stone wall
to see which one of them was being torched
or pierced through the side with a long spear.
Yes, it sounded like pain until I could see
the noisy one, anchored there on all fours,
her neck outstretched, her bellowing head
laboring upward as she gave voice
to the rising, full-bodied cry
that began in the darkness of her belly
and echoed up through her bowed ribs into her gaping mouth.
the noisy one, anchored there on all fours,
her neck outstretched, her bellowing head
laboring upward as she gave voice
to the rising, full-bodied cry
that began in the darkness of her belly
and echoed up through her bowed ribs into her gaping mouth.
Then I knew that she was only announcing
the large, unadulterated cowness of herself,
pouring out the ancient apologia of her kind
to all the green fields and the gray clouds,
to the limestone hills and the inlet of the blue bay,
while she regarded my head and shoulders
above the wall with one wild, shocking eye.
the large, unadulterated cowness of herself,
pouring out the ancient apologia of her kind
to all the green fields and the gray clouds,
to the limestone hills and the inlet of the blue bay,
while she regarded my head and shoulders
above the wall with one wild, shocking eye.
Task A: annotate the poem - identify as many different poetic techniques as possible.
Task B. What do you think the poem is saying about the experience of watching cows?
Task C: Use the internet to research this poem and its poet.
EG:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2bp-3yaiUc = 35 minute Youtube video
Then, after refection and working to better understand the poem so you can write about it in an exam, please respond to the following tasks and questions:
1. Find and list quotes that describe the various parts of the cows:
2. Find five quotes that describe the setting: the surrounding area, the field, the grass, the clouds. Any clues that this is in Ireland?
3. Describe the ‘bellow’ of the “noisy one” – include quotes. What are we expecting her to be mooing about? Validate your answer.
4. Why do you think Collins creates a speaker who goes to see which:
one of them was being torched
or pierced through the side with a long spear ?
What is the impact on the reader? What happens to our location in time?
5. Why do you think the speaker considers the cow is “pouring out the ancient apologia of her kind”?
1. Apologia: an apology, as in defense or justification of a belief, idea, etc.
Literature . a work written as an explanation or justification of one's motives, convictions, or acts.
6. Why do you think it is important that the cow is only looking at the speaker’s head and shoulders?
“she regarded my head and shoulders
above the wall with one wild, shocking eye.”
above the wall with one wild, shocking eye.”
What do you make of this quote?
8. In conclusion, what do you think the speaker learned from his afternoon with Irish cows? Consider how he juxtaposes very simple and standard images about cow with much more complex and rich ideas.
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