The speaker lives across the road from a field with a few dozen cows. Occasionally, as he passes by his window, the speaker observes the cows walking around the field, feeding or laying down. At other times, when he looks outside the window he can’t see them and imagines that they have all simultaneously disappeared, like a flock of birds taking flight.
The speaker becomes intrigued by the calm but mysterious cows. Every now and then, one of the cows makes a loud, intense noise as if it is in pain. This noise is so striking that the speaker stops his daily tasks, such as cutting an apple or reading the newspaper, and walks across the road to the stone wall surrounding the cow's field. The speaker wishes to investigate, becoming concerned that the animal is hurt.
The speaker discovers that the cow is not in pain and that this noise is normal. The cow is simply stretching out its neck and making a proud bellow to the sky. The speaker imagines this noise as the cow’s way of announcing its “cowness” to the surrounding environment, including the field, the clouds, the surrounding hills, and the bay. The speaker watches the cow and the cow stares back at its neighbor with its striking eye.
