Git Along, Little Robot

Abstract

Last year, somebody published an anthology of cowboy poetry. I have not read it. I have never seen it. No one I know has ever seen it. But the New York Times Book Review — on a lark, I suppose — assigned somebody to review the thing. The review was cordial, if slightly bemused. This prompted somebody from the state of South Dakota (as I recall) to write a letter to the editor. “You’ve got to understand,” said the letter-writer, “that cowboy poetry is the most reactionary literary form in existence. Debates among cowboy poets concern such grave questions as whether all stanzas have to have four lines or whether six lines are occasionally justifiable. Reckless experiments like free verse are unheard of.”