When I Was A Cowboy Poem Summary

What initially drew me to this poem was the title, and how it was written to be read as the first line of the poem. The title also drew me in because I have a connection to the material, my father died when I was ten. Not many lines about the speaker’s father draw direct parallels to my father, but never the less I was drawn to the work and felt a since of deep melancholy as I read. This since of melancholy, even though the speakers father differs from my own, is largely due to the non-standard metaphors. What I mean by this is that the work is riddled with metaphors, few of which are common, and I only felt like I understood the speakers meaning fully with a few. This drives the reader to attribute their own meaning to the poem as they go, forging a deeper connection to the work. The poem opens with descriptions of what the speakers father was. The very opening line, excluding the title, reads “Was a cowboy.” (1), which immediately gives the reader an image
Listing the things, they do because of their father. The most of these things to me is the last stanza. “Because of my father, I have no use for / similes. Because of my father, I hunger / for my own catalog of metaphors.” (30-32). This stanza has a lot to say to me as a person. I don’t quite know what he means by “…I have no use for / similes…” (30-31) but I do, on the other hand, know what is meant by “…I hunger / for my own catalog of metaphors…” (31-32). When you lose a parent, there is nothing more angering than hearing those six words “I know what you’re going through”, you don’t. Even if you have lost a parent you didn’t have the same relationship with them that I had with mine. Yearning for a list of your own metaphors, your own words, to explain how you feel is natural, because no one but you knows what you’re going through. This line also sheds so much light on the rest of the