Songfacts®:

• Originally titled "Poor Love," "Poor Cow" was at one point to be part of a Lord of the Rings project that Donovan had written a few songs for, but The Beatles were first in line. The book's author, J. R. R. Tolkien, was still alive and apparently didn't want any of his works visualized, so the project was shelved.
  
  The song was first heard - as "Poor Love" - on Donovan's 1967 Live in Anaheim album, then he rewrote it as "Poor Cow" for the 1968 movie of the same name. Donovan also wrote songs for If This is Tuesday It Must Be Belgium (in which he also starred) as well as Brother Sun Sister Moon and The Pied Piper.
• When Poor Cow director Ken Loach asked Donovan to supply original music that captured the fragile optimism of Joy (Carol White), a young London mother making the best of a harsh life, Donovan wrote two original pieces and reworked "Poor Love," which became the film's recurring musical motif.
• The lyric is sung in the first person from Joy's viewpoint. Lines like "I dwell in the town in the gray country. I laugh, I sing, I dream" contrast gray, working-class reality with inner hopes, mirroring Donovan's kitchen-sink storytelling.
• Donovan said in the BBC Radio 2 documentary Donovan: Sunshine Superman, the refrain "Poor cow, poor cow" was "a term of rueful endearment – never pity, just gentle understanding," aiming to show empathy without judgment.
• The film version of "Poor Cow" is sparse: vocal, finger-picked acoustic, upright bass, brushed snare. It was later released as the B-side to "Jennifer Juniper" in early 1968 with additional vibraphone and a brighter key. Donovan rewrote the beginning to "I dwell in the north in the green country," shifting the setting from London to pastoral memory.