The Ballad

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