cowboy poetry

Cowboy PoetryWriting in the Western/

Rural Style

A simple definition of cowboy poetry is…

a form of poetry which grew out of a tradition of extemporaneous composition carried on by workers on cattle drives and ranches.-Wikipedia

"It [is] a jazz of Irish storytelling, Scottish seafaring and cattle tending, Moorish and Spanish horsemanship, European cavalry traditions, African improvisation, and Native American experience, if also oppression. . . . the songs and poems of the American cowboy are part of that old tradition of balladry." --Western Folklife Center Archive

Cowboy Poetry & Western Music

“Then in the evenings there’d be songs, old trailherd songs that some used to sing. There was even poetry at times, made right there at the cow camp.” (James, 228)

Poetry, on such occasions, played second fiddle to singing.

Were cowboys illiterate?

“the widespread Victorian affection for parlor and public—often schoolhouse—recitations” was equally loved around cowboy campfires and chuckwagons, and included “a mass of popular poetry from Shakespeare to Stephen Vincent Benét…Rudyard Kipling and Robert W. Service….” (Stanley, 3)

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

John Whitcomb Riley

Robert W. Service

Robert Frost

Rudyard Kipling

Stephen St. Vincent Benet

Themes

• Ranch work and those who perform it

• Western lifestyle

• Landscape of the American and Canadian West

• Cowboy values and practices

• Humorous anecdotes

Themes Continued

• Memories of times and people long gone

• Sarcasm regarding modern contraptions and/or ways

Buck Ramsey•Born in New Home, TX 1938

•Worked as a day rancher until he was paralyzed in 1963

•Became a writer

•Died in 1998

Vess Quinlan

•Born in 1940

•Lived most of his life in Colorado

•Polio opened the door to poetry

Linda M. Hasselstrom

•Born in TX 1943

•Moved to SD 1947

•Graduated USD

•Worked for SC Journal

Baxter Black

•Born Jan. 2. 1945

•Las Cruses, New Mexico

•Large animal veterinarian

•Active writer since 1970’s

Rod McQueary

•Born in 1951

•Traditional and experimental poetry

•Worked as a writer and editor

•2012

R.W. Hampton

•Born in Houston 1957

•Rancher until 1984

•Became a singer/ songwriter

•Appeared in many movies

Yvonne Hollenbeck•From Gordon, NE

•Rancher in Spearfish, SD

•Poet, historian and singer

•Sweethearts in Carharts

Marci Broyhill

•Has deep roots in Northeast Nebraska

•Teacher, Researcher, poet, Performance artist

Henry Real Bird•Crow Indian

•Montana Poet Laureate 2009-2011

•Rancher and educator

•Rode across MT on horseback

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