Cowboy Poetry - A remarkable art

       There are probably as many definitions of cowboy poetry as there are definers. Here's one more. It's as vast as the big skies of Montana, and as diverse as the people that inhabited the "Old West". It's been around a long time. It had it origins in the western cow camps in the late 1800s. While many (but not all) of the cowboy poets of today are also entertainers who recite their poetry at "gatherings", the cowboy gatherings are a fairly new phenomenon. While the classical "Old West" poets may have incidentally recited their poems, they were first and foremost poets who wrote for the printed page. this was certainly the case with S. Omar Barker, Bruce Kiskaddon, Arthur Chapman and Henry Herbert Knibbs to name a few.

         Cowboy poetry was popular in the rural and western communities up through the forties. It has recently regained its popularity... and this is due to the poets who recite in the many cowboy poetry gatherings across the West. To these cowboy poets, those of us who just read or write cowboy poetry are indebted.

         Cowboy poetry is as different from the free verse of today, as day is from night. Some say that this is one of the main reasons for the current popularity of cowboy poetry. It has rhythm and rhyme. It is not so esoteric that few, if any, people know what the poet is talking about. Quite the contrary; it clearly sets out in appropriate words and phrases, the spirit and heart of the western way of life. The reader and listener knows and enjoys what the poet is saying...and is left with the lilt of the poem on his tongue.

          Robert Frost compares modern free verse to playing tennis without a net- too easy, without challenge, no fun! W.H.Auden describes the problem this way:

The poet who writes "free" verse is like Robinson Crusoe on his desert island: he must do all his cooking, laundry and darning himself. In a few exceptional cases, this manly independence produces something original and impressive, but more often the result is squalor- dirty sheets on the unmade bed and empty bottles on the unswept floor.

        For decades, the readers and lovers of classical poetry have been the captive audience of a movement that glorified free verse and would tolerate nothing else. The classical rhythm and rhyme of Shelley and Keats were no longer "politically acceptable". Substantially all that appeared in journals or that was considered by the literary elitists was modern free verse...and the more like a riddle it was, the better they seemed to like it.

        After a 40 year or so drought, along came today's cowboy poets and the cowboy gatherings. They did much to liberate the captive audience. Many people who were starved for the classical poetry with rhythm and rhyme (as opposed to free verse) ate it up. Apparently, there are many people who prefer poems with a recognizable rhythm and rhyme. It seems that this is, at least in part, why cowboy poetry has gained such popularity. Of course it helped that there were/are many talented cowboy poets who are equally talented entertainers. Reading a good poem is a pleasure, but hearing it presented by a talented performer adds yet another dimension to the poem.

            There is probably a valid distinction that can be made between cowboy poetry and cowboy verse. The former embodies the language of classical poetry: imagery, figurative language, simile, personification etc. The latter has a strong emphasis on rhyme and meter but relies on wit, originality and humor with little emphasis on the classical language of poetry. The objective of cowboy verse is to entertain...and it succeeds in doing exactly that. That's why cowboy gatherings are so popular. Good cowboy verse is clever, witty and highly entertaining. Cowboy verse is just downright " a lot of fun". to listen to and to read. And it is worth noting, that one of the most successful poems/verses of all time was a verse by    Robert Service. The Shooting Of Dan McGrew rolled up a half million dollars for him....and keep in mind that was in the 1950s.

         The rhyme schemes and meters of Robert Service are universally recognized as superior. There are at best a handful of American poets that are more skillful at crafting rhyme schemes and meters. The obituary that appeared in the Pittsburg Sun-Telegraph of Sept. 16, 1958, said this of Robert Service:

"A GREAT POET died last week in Lancieux, France, at the age of 84. ...He was not a poet's poet. Fancy-Dan dilettantes will dispute the description "great". He was a people's poet. To the people he was great. They understood him, and knew that any verse carrying the by-line of Robert W. Service would be lilting thing, clear, clean and power-packed, beating out a story with a dramatic intensity that made the nerves tingle."

        When it comes to rhyme schemes and meter, Edgar Allen Poe, may not have been surpassed.... but Robert Service came close to doing it, and some folks would argue that he did it. And there are many that would argue that with his poem "When They're Finished Shipping Cattle In The Fall", Bruce Kiskaddon did it!! The rhyme scheme and meter, the lilt and artistry, the sheer magic of this poem is about as good as it gets. This poem has enchanted readers and audience like few others.

          Cowboy poetry embodies both classical poetry and verse...neither form is superior to the other. It takes a skillful and very witty poet to turn out the verse of Henry Herbert Knibbs in "Punchin' Dough". But Knibbs has also written fine poetry that embodies the elements of classical poetry such as "Make Me No Grave". There are cowboy poets that are included in anthologies of North American poetry; and Henry Herbert Knibbs is just one of them. His poem, "The Trail Makers" is included by literary elites (such as Louis Untermeyer) in their anthologies of first-rate American poems. This is also true as regards certain poems of Robert Service such as "Spell Of The Yukon" and "Men That Don't Fit In". (Both of these poems along with Knibb's "Punchin' Dough" and "Make Me No Grave" are featured on The Range Writers.)

        Cowboy poets have captured and helped preserve the spirit of the "Old West"; and they have brought back rhythm and rhyme to the art of poetry. In doing so, they have given a great deal of pleasure to readers and audiences across the country.
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