101 Poems, Number 68

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

68: “Buffalo Bill’s,” 1922 (in Tulips & Chimneys), by E. E. Cummings (1894–1962)

“Buffalo Bill’s defunct”—and so

Begins another weird one (Cummings-style).

But it was one I had to know—

An Oklahoma boy, a smile

Upon my face as I once read

Of cowboys long ago, I learned

Of William Cody (now long dead)

And then could not have well discerned

The ethical dimensions of

Those Western heroes I adored—

I read and watched with boyhood love—

While hero tales upon me poured.

And Cummings writes of Cody dead—

And asks a question of dark Death

That was enough to roil my head—

The final line? It took my breath.

Link to poem.