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Broadside ballad entitled 'The Cradles Empty Babys Gone' |
CommentaryThis ballad begins: 'Little empty cradle treasured now with care, / Though thy precious burden it has fled, / How me miss the locks of curly golden hair; / Peeping from thy tiny snow-white bed' Below the title we are told that 'This popular song can always be had at the Poet's B 182 Overgate, Dundee'. This melancholic ballad tells the unhappy story of the death of a baby. As you would expect of such a song of mourning, the tone of this ballad is lyrical rather than sentimental - especially in the second verse, when the baby's death is finally revealed. The second verse moves location from the cradle to the grave, and the writer skilfully employs the natural image of the weeping willow to reinforce the pain and grief that exists in this song of lamentation. Many broadside ballads such as this one are held in the National Library of Scotland's collection. 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(62b)
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