Living

The Re-echo Club: as by Algernon Swinburne (Purple Cow)

by Carolyn Wells 1862–1942

From The Re-echo Club

Living

Oh, Cow of rare rapturous vision,
Oh, purple, impalpable Cow,
Do you browse in a Dream Field Elysian,
Are you purpling pleasantly now?
By the side of wan waves do you languish?
Or in the lithe lush of the grove?
While vainly I search in my anguish,
O Bovine of mauve!

Despair in my bosom is sighing,
Hope's star has sunk sadly to rest;
Though cows of rare sorts I am buying,
Not one breathes a balm to my breast.
Oh, rapturous rose-crowned occasion,
When I such a glory might see!
But a cow of a purple persuasion
I never would be.

✦ ✦ ✦

A parody by Carolyn Wells, written in the manner of Algernon Swinburne as a contribution to the imagined Re-Echo Club (Purple Cow).

MLA

Wells, Carolyn. “The Re-echo Club: as by Algernon Swinburne (Purple Cow).” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/wells_c/257/.

Chicago

Wells, Carolyn. “The Re-echo Club: as by Algernon Swinburne (Purple Cow).” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/wells_c/257/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

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