Cowboy Poetry Matters: From Abilene to the Mainstream : Contemporary Cowboy WritingRobert McDowell Story Line Press, 2000 - 273 pages In his groundbreaking essay "Can Poetry Matter?" (reprinted here), Dana Gioia suggested that many types of poetry, assumed by some readers to be marginal art, should not so easily be deleted from mainstream American literature. Throughout the twentieth century, perhaps no important writing has been as seriously -- and mistakenly -- overlooked by the literati as Cowboy poetry. Essentially connected to the folk tale, to legend, myth, the ballad, and song, and vitally enhanced by the contemporary voices of independent ranch women, Cowboy poetry vividly connects us to our past and our fragile, threatened natural environment. The writers included here, both working horse-and-cattle people and mainstream authors, share the brand of bold expression and independent thought found only among the best literary artists. Here is not literary theory. Here is literary life. An anthology as diverse as America herself! |
From inside the book
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Page 203
... LITERARY CANON One of the most frustrating aspects of discussing cowboy poetry is what might be called the “ you had ... literary canon is a body of written texts , not performances . Where in the literary canon does cowboy poetry belong ...
... LITERARY CANON One of the most frustrating aspects of discussing cowboy poetry is what might be called the “ you had ... literary canon is a body of written texts , not performances . Where in the literary canon does cowboy poetry belong ...
Page 221
... literary commod- ity intended less to be read than to be noted with approval . Most editors run poems and poetry reviews the way a prosperous Montana rancher might keep a few buffalo around - not to eat the endangered creatures but to ...
... literary commod- ity intended less to be read than to be noted with approval . Most editors run poems and poetry reviews the way a prosperous Montana rancher might keep a few buffalo around - not to eat the endangered creatures but to ...
Page 225
... literary quality is a concept that neither an editor nor a reader should take too seriously . The 1985 Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets , for example , is not so much a selective literary collection as a comprehensive ...
... literary quality is a concept that neither an editor nor a reader should take too seriously . The 1985 Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets , for example , is not so much a selective literary collection as a comprehensive ...
Common terms and phrases
ain't Albert American poetry anthologies asked audience Baxter Black branding broncs Buck calf calves canon cattle Charles Badger Clark contemporary cowboy and ranching Cowboy Poetry Gathering coyote creative-writing critics culture Dana Gioia Dofflemyer Donald Hall dream earth Elko essay etry eyes fence gate grass hands hear heard heart herd horse Hussa knew Lariati listen literary literature living look magazines Marianne Moore Montana Nevada never night numbers oral pastoral Paul Zarzyski poems Poetry Gathering program poetry's poets popular poetry Press published R. P. Blackmur rancher ranching poetry range readers recited Review rhyme Richard Hugo ride Robert Frost Robinson Jeffers rodeo rural saddle shoe singing song story subculture There's things town tradition trail turn verse Wallace McRae Wallace Stevens Wallis West western Western Folklife Center wild wind words writing