Dixey Bull

DESCRIPTION: "Dixey Bull was a pirate bold, He swept our coast in search of gold." Jamestown is afraid of him. Daniel Curtis, however, challenges Bull to a singe combat. The poem describes the combat in detail; eventually Curtis kills Bull and "saved the town"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1925 (Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine)
KEYWORDS: pirate fight death money
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine, pp. 249-253, "Dixey Bull" (1 text)
Roud #4075
NOTES [74 words]: This is item dD29 in Laws's Appendix II, but I seriously doubt that it is a traditional song -- it looks much more like a poem. For one thing, all four lines of each stanza have four feet, not 4/3/4/3 as is typical in ballads, and the rhyme scheme is aabb, not xaxa. It may have been traditional -- although the Eckstorm/Smyth-MinstrelsyOfMaine text seems awfully pristine in all its details of the fight -- but as a recitation, not a song. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.2
File: EcSm249

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