Cowboy's Dream

Written by: [Traditional]
Language: English
Adapted from: My Bonnie written by
Comments: "Cowboy's Dream" was originally titled "Sweet By-and-By Revised" or "The Cowboy's Sweet By and By". The authorship of "The Cowboy's Dream" has been ascribed to many people.

Dominick J. O'Malley (1867-1943) is one of them and he recalls that "Sweet By-and-By Revised" was one of his earliest attempts at verse making. He believes it probably was the third or fourth poem of the forty or more that he wrote while following the cowpuncher’s trade.
The original, which he says appeared in the Stock Growers’ Journal during the middle 1880’s, is a rather crude set of verses, only five in number. O'Malley credited another puncher, Tom Phelps, with the idea for the verses. "Tom was singing 'Sweet By and By' most of the time. He had a habit of closing a verse with, `I wonder if ever a cowboy will get to that Sweet By and By'. This gave me the idea for the poem."

According to the website Cowboy Poetry, O'Malley's verses are:

SWEET BY AND BY REVISED

Tonight as I lay on the prairie
Looking up at the stars in the sky
I wonder if ever a cowboy
Will go to that sweet by and by.

For the trail to that bright mystic region
Is both dim and narrow, so they say
While the broad one that leads to perdition
Is posted and blazed all the way.

Now I wonder whose fault that so many
Will be lost at the great final day
When they might have been rich and had plenty
If they had known of the dim narrow way.

I hear there will be a grand round-up,
When the cowboys, like others, will stand
To be cut by the riders of judgment
Who are posted and know every brand.

Then perhaps there may be a stray cowboy,
Unbranded, unclaimed by none nigh,
To be mavericked by the riders of judgment,
And shipped to the sweet by- and- by.

Another person claiming autorship is Will Croft Barnes (1858-1936), who first heard "Cowboy's Sweet By and By" in 1886-1887
"I first heard this song in 1886 or '87 on the Hash Knife range in northern Arizona. A half-breed Indian boy from southern Utah sang about four verses, which he had picked up from some other singers. He knew nothing of their authorship. I wrote these four out in my calf-branding book one evening.
Later on a boy from down the Pecos way drifted into our camp and sang the four with slight variations, with two new ones, one of which he claimed as his own work. I wrote another and eventually picked up three more, until I finally had ten verses in all. With the idea of using it as the motif for a cowboy story, I rewrote two or three verses, changed the words of several, added the chorus, and cut the ten down to six verses. With these revisions it was published in Cosmopolitan Magazine, August 1895; "The Stampede on the Turkey Track Range"
He said that he added the "Roll On" chorus, but didn't use it in the story.

Here are W.C. Barnes verses

THE COWBOY'S SWEET BY AND BY
Tune: My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

Last night as I lay on the prairie
And gazed at the stars in the sky
I wondered if ever a cowboy
Would drift to that sweet by and by.

The trail to that bright, mystic region
Is narrow and dim so they say,
But the one that leads down to perdition
Is staked and blazed all the way.

They say there'll be a great round-up,
Where cowboys, like dogies, will stand,
To be cut by those riders from Heaven,
Who are posted and know every brand.

I wonder was there ever a cowboy
Prepared for that great judgment day,
Who could say to the boss of the riders,
I am ready to be driven away.

They say He will never forsake you,
That he notes every action and look,
But for safety you'd better get branded,
And have your name in His great tally-book.

For they tell of another great owner
Who is nigh overstocked, so they say,
But who always makes room for the sinner
Who strays from that bright, narrow way.
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