Audiobook · read by volunteers
Cow
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894)
Read by Brad Bush, Chris Vee, Cori Samuel, Fargo Penneau, Grace Bush, Henry Frigon, Hugh McGuire, Jean O'Sullivan, Kristen McQuillin, Kara Shallenberg (1969-2023) · 12 chapters · 8 min
Chapters
About the book
Robert Louis Stevenson's The Cow is a tiny poem, only a dozen short lines long, and it is a delight of rhythm. It paints a friendly cow who gives cream, wanders the open air and eats the meadow flowers, with the simple good humour typical of a poet who wrote so well for children. This recording is not a single reading but a collection of different ones: a group of LibriVox volunteers each read the same short poem in their own voice, pace and mood, and the twelve tracks sit one after another. It makes for a curious listening experience, a bit like hearing a nursery rhyme passed around a table. You will notice how emphasis, accent and tempo change what a poem seems to say. The whole set lasts only a few minutes, so it is easy to fit into a break, to share with a child, or to use as a gentle introduction to poetry read aloud.
Introduction
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) was a Scottish writer best known for Treasure Island and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but he also wrote a small and much-loved book of verse for children, A Child's Garden of Verses, published in 1885. The Cow belongs to that world of short, bright poems about everyday things seen with a child's attentive eye.
This item comes from LibriVox's weekly poetry project, in which many volunteers record the same short text. The point is not to find the one correct reading but to enjoy the variety. One reader may be brisk and playful, another slow and tender; one may lean on the rhymes, another on the picture. Listening to several versions in a row is a small lesson in how a voice interprets a text.
The collection contains 12 tracks, labelled simply Version 01, Version 02 and so on, and takes about six minutes in all. Ten volunteers are credited among the readers, including Brad Bush, Chris Vee and Cori Samuel.
Why listen today? Because it is quick, free of any need for background, and a lovely way to show a child, or yourself, that poetry is meant to be heard. Pick a favourite version, or compare them all and decide which cow you like best. Because the whole set is so short, it also makes a good experiment: listen to three versions in a row, then ask a friend or a child which one they preferred and why. The answer says a great deal about what we expect poetry to sound like, and it costs almost no time at all.
Public domain
Robert Louis Stevenson died in 1894: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text