Ballads
A ballad is an impersonal poem
It is a short poem, usually 50 or 60 lines long
It is written in rhymed verse which could be sung.
Rhyme:
Some ballads are like epics deal with wars some deal with love
some with everyday experience
A ballad is a narrative poem that tells a
story
The common measure used in ballads is the fourteener.
The fourteener is lines of fourteen syllables broken up into two
divisions of eight and six syllables
for example: the ballad in Page (39)
Two Kinds of Ballads: 1- Traditional Ballads:
(usually by unknown poets)an example is The Wife of
Usher’s Well.2- Literary Ballads:
Imitations of traditional onesan example is Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner
How to recognize a Ballad:
• A ballad must be a narrative• Impersonal in tone• Written in stanza of four lines in
which the first and third consist of 8 syllables each and the second and fourth consist of 6 syllable each