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Broadside ballad entitled 'It is but a Little Golden Ring' |
CommentaryThis ballad begins: 'Memory carries my fancy to-day, / Back to a scene which has long passed away; / There stands a sailor in garments of blue, / Bidding a poor weeping widow adieu.' The text preceding it reads: 'This Popular Song can always be had at the Poet's Box, 224 Overgate Dundee. / Sung with great success by Sister Lyster'. Poet's Box publications tend to be completely anonymous, but many of the sheets distributed by the Dundee Box give quite detailed information about who printed, wrote or performed them. Unfortunately, as with the case of Sister Lyster, no further information is really known about the performers or their careers. This style of oral group entertainment was open to all, and so formal records were rarely kept. 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(104b)
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