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Broadside ballad entitled 'Bonnie Jeanie Shaw' |
CommentaryVerse 1: 'I'm faur awa' frae Scotland / Nae lovin' yin is near, / I dinna see the auld folk / The folk I loe sae dear; / But I'll leave this foreign laun' / Wi its scenes and sichts sae braw; / And I'll wander hame tae Scotland / An' my bonnie Jeanie Shaw'. The song was published by the Poet's Box of Dundee. Emigration and missing one's homeland and loved ones was a common theme for broadsides, especially in the nineteenth century when emigration escalated. It is still an important element of the modern Scots and Irish folk tradition, especially in Canada and America. Unlike many of the songs, which are really laments, here the singer has made the decision to return to Scotland to be reunited with his loved one. 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(24a)
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