Buffalo Bill
Buffalo Bill - meaning Summary
Nostalgia for Frontier Spectacle
The poem captures a communal ache for Buffalo Bill as a living image of frontier romance. Addressing a boy named Johnny Jones, the speaker describes Buffalo Bill not as biography but as a slanting look under a hat on a horse that reawakens youthful longing. The spectacle—ponies, cowboys, prairies, night, wagons, and rifle flashes—fills adults and boys alike with a yearning for the dramatic, nostalgic world of the West.
Read Complete AnalysesBOY heart of Johnny Jones-aching to-day? Aching, and Buffalo Bill in town? Buffalo Bill and ponies, cowboys, Indians? Some of us know All about it, Johnny Jones. Buffalo Bill is a slanting look of the eyes, A slanting look under a hat on a horse. He sits on a horse and a passing look is fixed On Johnny Jones, you and me, barelegged, A slanting, passing, careless look under a hat on a horse. Go clickety-clack, O pony hoofs along the street. Come on and slant your eyes again, O Buffalo Bill. Give us again the ache of our boy hearts. Fill us again with the red love of prairies, dark nights, lonely wagons, and the crack-crack of rifles sputtering flashes into an ambush.
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