BRONCHO DAN halts midway of the stream, Sucking up the water that goes tugging at his knees; High noon and dry noon, -- to-day it doesn't seem As if the country ever knew the blessing of a breeze. A torn felt hat with the brim cockled up, A dip from the saddle -- there you are -- It's the brew of old Snake River in a cowboy's drinking-cup -- At the ford of Deadman's Bar. "Now for a toast, a health before we go, -- A health to the life that makes living worth a try; A long drink, a deep drink, it's bumpers, Dan, you know; No heel-taps now, old pony, you must drink the river dry! Here's to her then, --every sunrise knows her name, I've given it away to every star; Cold water in a hat! Pretty tough, but what of that? -- It's the best -- at Deadman's Bar. "Where Summer camps all the year by the sea, By the broad Pacific where your widened waters pour, Old Snake River, take a message down for me, Tell the waves that sing to her along the Southern Shore; Say that I'm a-rustling, though the trail that leads to wealth Is mighty hard to find and dim and far, But tell her that I love her, and say I drank her health To-day at Deadman's Bar." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE WIND (2) by EMILY DICKINSON MILTON; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE BIGLOW PAPERS: 3. WHAT MR. ROBINSON THINKS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM by THOMAS MOORE STONEWALL JACKSON'S WAY by JOHN WILLIAMSON PALMER TO BE CARVED ON A STONE AT THOOR BALLYLEE (1) by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |