| Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918. |
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| 82. The Cow |
| | | By Bernard O’Dowd |
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| THIS is a rune I ravelled in the still, | |
| Arrogant stare of an Australian cow— | |
| ‘These prankt intruders of the hornless brow, | |
| Puffed up with strange illusions of their skill | |
| To fence, to milk, to fatten and to kill, | 5 |
| Once worshipped me with temple, rite and vow, | |
| Crowned me with stars, and bade rapt millions bow | |
| Before what abject guess they called my will! | |
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| ‘To-day, this flunkey of my midden, Man, | |
| Throws child-oblations in my milking byre, | 10 |
| Stifles in slums to spare me lordly fields, | |
| Flatters with spotless consorts my desire, | |
| And for a pail of cream his birth-right yields, | |
| As once in Egypt, Hellas, Ind, Iran!’ | |
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