Cows by Lydia Davis, and Thirteen Ways

¶ … Cows by Lydia Davis, and Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens

In Davis' work, the reader gains an intimate knowledge of cows and their habits and patterns of living. This poem basically gives a summary of a day in the life of a cow and includes waking up, grazing, feeding, and other such activities. The poem is replete with metaphors. Most of these relate to descriptions of the cows, such as in the quote

"Their bodies are entirely black, but they have white / on their faces. On the faces of two of them there are large / patches of white, like a mask. On the face of the third, / there is only a small patch on the forehead, the size of a/

silver dollar."[footnoteRef:1] [1: Lydia Davis, The Cows (Louisville: Sarabande Books, 2011).]

By presenting her readers with such detailed knowledge of the cows' appearance, the author truly positions the audience to see a clear picture of what the cows look like. Such description also includes the environments, where the author states things such as "they look across the road," and "I see most of them from the kitchen window over the top of a hedge." By including these descriptions, Davis, allows the reader to have a clear picture both of the cows themselves and their activities, as well as their locations and their environment. It is also important to mention the author's personification of the cows in the quotation,

"They are not disappointed in us, or do not remember / being disappointed. If, one day, when we have nothing / to offer them, they lose interest and turn away, they will / have forgotten their disappointment by the next day."[footnoteRef:2] [2: Lydia Davis, The Cows (Louisville: Sarabande Books, 2011). ]

It is interesting that the author chooses to give the cows' supposed emotions to the reader, thus bringing the audience ever closer to feeling as a cow does.

In the next work, the poem by Wallace Stevens, the author describes ways in which a person can look at a blackbird. Though the poem is also about an animal, the two authors' viewpoints are somewhat different. In the work by Stevens there is an incredible amount of poeticism, and metaphors, personifications, similes, etc. abound. It is also important to note that Stevens utilizes such devices to refer to his own feelings and emotions, whereas Davis only utilized matter of fact statements to refer to her observations. Such differences are obvious in quotations such as Wallace's statement that [1: ]