And There Is That Poor Heifer By David Keats Analysis

In this moment of physical removal, instilled with a sense of overwhelming largeness, she is able to wonder “if her life would be a fit gift.” Without any sort of palpable connection to the world, being neither at the village or home, she is unsure if her life, the entirety of herself, would enough to give. At such an abstract and removed distance, she feels completely in control of her thoughts and is able to rationalize even the sacrifice of her own life.

Paired with the paragraph about the woman in Greece and removed from the narrative of David is a paragraph that recognizes the other side of sacrifice—the role of the sacrificial lamb, or in this case cow. The speaker considers what it is like to be the powerless and unwitting sacrifice of another: “And there is that poor heifer in the poem by Keats, all decked out in ribbons and flowers, no terror in the eyes, no
He had the hurt look, David said, of a kicked dog with a long, unblemished record of loyalty and affection…He seemed to David unimaginably empty of inner life if he could be hurt rather than affronted by a callow young man making a stiffly moral gesture in front of two men his father’s age.”

Similar to the cow, or the “worried and curious” peasants that Humphrey allowed to be bombed, the vice president was totally blindsided by David’s insult. At the college waiting to be introduced to colleagues and new friends in his position of honor, the vice president was expecting loyalty and affection. Like the heifer who is all decked out in ribbons and flowers, the vice president is expensively dressed and “immensely hearty,” and like the heifer, because he thought David to be a friend and an ally, the shock of being insulted—of being sacrificed—for a “stiffly moral gesture” was painful for Humphrey. David was