Cattle Drive Poem- 1880s

Subject: Cattle Drive Poem- 1880s
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 04:51 PM

"Old Spookses' Pass," written by Isabella Valency Crawford (1850-1887) in 1884 has many of the elements of cowboy songs. Night watch over 3000 head while short-handed, the stampede, cowboy lingo throughout- a fictionalized tale in verse of driving cattle through the southern Alberta-British Columbia portion of the Rocky Mountains. "Yaller Bull Flat probably refers to Old Crow Flats, and the 'Pass' is probably the Yellowhead.
The poem has 53 eight-line stanzas.
Found while searching for old 19th century cowboy poetry. I won't post it because of its length and doubts about 'singability' but it does have possibilities.
Here are a few stanzas:

I.
We'd camped that night on Yaller Bull Flat,-
Thar was Possum Billy, an' Tom, an' me.
Right smart at throwin' a lariat
Was them two fellers, as ever I see;
An' for ridin' a broncho, or argyin' squar
With the devil roll'd up in the hide of a mule,
Them two fellers that camp'd with me thar
Would hev made an'or'nary feller a fool.

III
We was short of hands, the herd was large,
An' watch an' watch we divided the night;
We could hear the coyotes howl an' whine,
But the darned critters kept out of sight
Of the camp-fire blazin'; an' now an' then
Thar cum a rustle an' sort of rush-
A rattle a-sneakin' away from the blaze,
Thro' the rattlin', cracklin' grey sage brush.
-------

XXVI
Tearin' along the indigo sky
Wus a drove of clouds, snarl'd an' black;
Scuddin' along to'ards the risin' moon,
Like the sweep of a darn'd hungry pack
Of preairie wolves to'ard a buffeler,
The heft of the herd left out of sight;
I dror'd my breath right hard, fur I know'd
We was in fur a 'tarnal run thet night.

Find the story at the University of Toronto Poetry site: Old Spookses Pass

Subject: RE: Cattle Drive Poem- 1880s
From: Joe Offer
Date: 22 Feb 04 - 05:06 PM

It's a great poem, well worth your while to follow Q's link and read the whole thing. Ordinarily, I'd post the entire text, but it's at a University of Toronto site that's not likely to disappear.

Most interesting to me was the Webistes statement that "the cowboy's tale concerns what would later be called "a ghost rider in the sky."


Yes, I guess it does, at that.
Cool.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Cattle Drive Poem- 1880s
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 09:59 AM

That's wonderful! Thanks for the excerpt and the link.

kat

Subject: RE: Cattle Drive Poem- 1880s
From: Art Thieme
Date: 23 Feb 04 - 08:25 PM

There was a time I'd take that lyric as a challenge. ;-)

Show it to Barry O'Neil---let him read it once or twice and he would then sing it for you straight through with an appropriate tune that might scan quite nicely. Folks like Barry drive me nuts what they can do with photographic memories.

If Joe Hickerson is out their lurking: Joe, come on in here and tell these folks about Mr. O.

Thanks, Q. !!!

Art Thieme