Uploaded November 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 238 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
First published in Carl Sandburg's American Songbag in 1927.
Sandburg writes: "A lusty and lustful song developed by blacks of South Carolina, who had it from sailors originally, is Hog-Eye. In themes it is primitive, anatomical, fierce of breath, aboriginal rather than original.
One lone verse, passing any censor, is presented, with a tune notated by Julia Peterkin."
ADDITIONAL INFO: Ed Cray, The Erotic Muse, explains "hog-eye man" as one deeply interested in sex. Sandburg explains a "hog-eye" as the barges that traveled from the Atlantic ports around Cape Horn to San Francisco. A "hog-eye man" would therefore be a crewmember of such a barge. Given the length of the voyage around the Horn in the 1850s, the two definitions may not be mutually exclusive. (The Traditional Ballad Index)
Day 238 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
First published in Carl Sandburg's American Songbag in 1927.
Sandburg writes: "A lusty and lustful song developed by blacks of South Carolina, who had it from sailors originally, is Hog-Eye. In themes it is primitive, anatomical, fierce of breath, aboriginal rather than original.
One lone verse, passing any censor, is presented, with a tune notated by Julia Peterkin."
ADDITIONAL INFO: Ed Cray, The Erotic Muse, explains "hog-eye man" as one deeply interested in sex. Sandburg explains a "hog-eye" as the barges that traveled from the Atlantic ports around Cape Horn to San Francisco. A "hog-eye man" would therefore be a crewmember of such a barge. Given the length of the voyage around the Horn in the 1850s, the two definitions may not be mutually exclusive. (The Traditional Ballad Index)
