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Home  »  Mountain Interval  »  15. The Cow in Apple Time

Robert Frost (1874–1963). Mountain Interval. 1920.

15. The Cow in Apple Time

SOMETHING inspires the only cow of late

To make no more of a wall than an open gate,

And think no more of wall-builders than fools.

Her face is flecked with pomace and she drools

A cider syrup. Having tasted fruit,

She scores a pasture withering to the root.

She runs from tree to tree where lie and sweeten

The windfalls spiked with stubble and worm-eaten.

She leaves them bitten when she has to fly.

She bellows on a knoll against the sky.

Her udder shrivels and the milk goes dry.