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Cows on the Beach
Matthew Sweeney
About Matthew Sweeney
Matthew Sweeney often writes about children in solitary settings or places and creatures in environments where they do not belong. He presents ordinary situations from new and unusual angles.
Two cows,
fed-up with grass, field, farmer.
barged through barbed wire
and found the beach.
Each mooed to each:
This is a better place to be,
a stretch of sand next to the sea,
this is the place for me.
And they stayed there all day,
strayed this way, that way,
over to rocks,
past discarded socks,
ignoring the few people they met
(it wasn't high season yet).
They dipped hooves in the sea,
got wet up to the knee,
they swallowed pebbles and sand,
found them a bit bland,
washed them down with sea-water,
decided they real ought to
rest for an hour.
Both were sure
they' d never leave here.
imagine, they' d lived so near
and never knew!
With a swapped moo
they sank into sleep,
woke to the yellow jeep
of the farmer
revving there
feet from the incoming sea.
This is no place for cows to be,
he shouted, and slapped them
with seaweed, all the way home.
Available Answers
- 1.
Two cows went to the beach one day. Did they intend to go there? Did they even know about the beach? How can you tell?
- 2.
The second stanza shows that the cows liked the beach immediately. Do you think this was because they had found good things on the beach or because they had escaped a boring life on the farm?
- 3.
Can you guess whether the beach was mostly unused by people or used a lot? Which does it look like in the beginning? When do we realise it is not so? What evidence on the beach makes us realise it? Why were there so few people when the cows got there?
- 4.
The third and fourth stanzas describe what the cows did on the beach all day. What did they do? What did they eat and drink?
- 5.
From what they did, does it really look like an interesting day to have? Would they have enjoyed all that they saw and ate and drank? Is it likely that they got bored with the place and uneasy in the stomach? Was that probably why they decided to sleep for a while?
- 6.
Now look at stanza 5. The cows still talk as if they are happy, but is that convincing? Do we not feel that they know they are not happy there, but do not want to admit it?
6 more answer(s) available.