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Broadside ballad entitled 'The Song of the Emigrant' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'I'm lying on a foreign shore, / An hear the birdies sing, / They speak to me o' Auld Langsyne, / An' sunny memories bring, / Oh but tae see a weel kent face, / Or hear a Scottish lay, / As sung in years lang, lang bye-gane, / They haunt me nicht and day.' The sheet was printed by the Poet's Box of the Overgate, Dundee and sold for a penny. It also features a woodcut of a thistle, an emblem of Scotland. This song follows the very traditional theme of the emigrant's longing for home. The narrator is reminisces about his homeland, its people and its culture. The folksongs of Scotland are especially dear to him. Broadside ballads often mention other, more famous songs in their lyrics to evoke a memory or feeling, and this one is no exception. It is not clear what the connection between the different Poet?s Boxes were. They almost certainly sold each other?s sheets. It is known that John Sanderson in Edinburgh often wrote to the Leitches in Glasgow for songs and that later his brother Charles obtained copies of songs from the Dundee Poet?s Box. There was also a Poet?s Box in Belfast from 1846 to 1856 at the address of the printer James Moore, and one at Paisley in the early 1850s, owned by William Anderson. Early ballads were dramatic or humorous narrative songs derived from folk culture that predated printing. Originally perpetuated by word of mouth, many ballads survive because they were recorded on broadsides. Musical notation was rarely printed, as tunes were usually established favourites. The term 'ballad' eventually applied more broadly to any kind of topical or popular verse.
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Probable period of publication:
1880-1900 shelfmark: L.C.Fol.70(29b)
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