| OCR Text |
Show make a written piece less interesting can become the features used to advantage by the performer, in creating mood or believability. Or, as folklorist Gary Stanton suggests "It is the social, interactive aspects of cowboy recitation which make it particularly interesting in this frequently solitary occupation Poems are either written or preselected [for recitation] because they are socially acceptable." (unpublished report on cowboy poetry in Idaho, p. 3, 1984) To elaborate on Stanton's words, poems are socially acceptable within the cowboy community if they are recognizable, i.e. if they fit stylistic conventions while accurately depicting ranching culture. Not only specific style, but also specific content is necessary for a piece to be recognized as cowboy poetry. This specific content, or subject matter, is generally either a narrative that tells a story or a more reflective piece which philosophizes or directs action. When speaking of the cowboy songs that came into existence between 1870 and 1930, Austin and Alta Fife in Cowboy and Western Songs explain that "Their real substance consists of the candid and dramatic way in which they reveal the human condition in those decades of frontier life when men lived, laboured, loved and died where laws, conventions and traditions were lacking or ineffectual." (p. xi, 1982) Cowboy poetry has always Cowboy Poetry From Utah 13 |
