Ballads ~Sir Patrick Spens ~Bonnie George Campbell ~Bonny Barbara Allan ~Get Up and Bar the Door

Definitions and Important Info: A ballad is a lively storytelling form of poetry, and the story typically is told in a particular way Ballads start quickly, without much introduction or narration narrative moves - how the poet tells the story broadside ballads - the tradition of sensationalist journalism written in ballad form most basic ballad stanza structure - alternating 4-beat and 3-beat lines, with the second line rhyming with the fourth

Refrain – a repeated word, group of words, or group of lines Incremental repetition (also variation) – a phrase or sentence repeated with a new element each time Irony – contrast between expectation and outcome Quatrain – four line stanza Ballad stanza – eight syllables in the 1st and 3rd lines; six syllables in the shorter 2nd and 4th lines Meter – basic rhythmic structure of a verse Iambic – stress in each line falls on every other syllable

Just SIT right BACK and you’ll HEAR a TALE, A TALE of a FATEful TRIP In its most familiar version, the ballad stanza is four lines of alternating four-beat (tetrameter) and three-beat (trimeter) verse, with the second line rhyming with the fourth: Just SIT right BACK and you’ll HEAR a TALE, A TALE of a FATEful TRIP That STARted FROM this TROpic PORT A-BOARD this TIny SHIP.

Another example: They dined on mince, and slices of quince, Which they ate with a runcible spoon; And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon… ~”The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear

Examples: In “Jabberwocky,” Lewis Carroll writes stanzas of 4-beat lines with alternating rhymes, so that line 1 rhymes with line 3, and line 2 with line 4, like this: ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!”

Miniver loved the days of old Edwin Arlington Robinson uses the same ballad stanza as Keats in “Miniver Cheevy”: Miniver loved the days of old When swords were bright and steeds were prancing; The vision of a warrior bold Would SET him DANcing. Miniver sighed for what was not, And dreamed, and rested from his labors; He dreamed of Thebes and Camelot, And PRIam’s NEIGHbors.

It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, Edgar Allan Poe adds an extra pair of lines to the ballad stanzas of “Annabel Lee,” mostly continuing the rhythmic alternation of 4- and 3-beat lines: It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.