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8 of the Best Examples of Ballad Poems. By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Ballad metre’ is the term given to poems written in quatrains, usually of alternating tetrameter (four-foot) and trimeter (three-foot) lines, rhymed abcb. Ballads originally became popular in the late medieval period, and were designed to be sung and ...
The words are set to music to become a song, and follow a simple rhyming pattern and a set meter (or rhythm ). Each verse has four lines, and the poem can have as many verses as necessary to tell the story. Some famous examples are ‘Beowulf’, ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ and ‘The House of The Rising Sun.’*.
- Ballad Poem #2
- Ballad Poetry Defined
- The History of Ballad Poetry
- Writing Ballad Poetry
The Last Request The ship was assail. The cool air was clean. McHaggerty looked at his true love and beamed. She looked to his eyes and she suddenly knew that her love for him was forever through. She gazed at the captain, out, steering above. It was only for him that her heart gave out love. When Mc Haggerty noticed her look, he felt pain. "I must...
Ballad poetry tells a story in rhyme.While many sophisticates have disdain for rhyme, they probably have enjoyed a few ballad poems in their time. It turns out that rhyme is a mainstay of the human condition. Translation: we love rhymes! We love them as children, and as human beings of any age. We enjoy the satisfaction of a good story told to a we...
Before the Internet (way, way before the Internet), before Gutenberg and the life-changing printing press, stories were passed down from one generation to the next by way of ballad poetry. In the Middle Ages, wandering Minstrels (singing poets), traveled through Europe, performing their stories and songs at castles and villages. The ballads were ge...
By now you probably have the idea that ballads are poems or songs that tell a story in rhyme. If you'd like to write one of your own, my suggestion to you would be to start with the story BEFORE you attempt to commit it to verse. If you let the rhyme take control of your ballad poem, you will soon be unfamiliar with the story that comes out the end...
- “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats. One of the oldest known English ballad poems, “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” means “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy.
- “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The longest poem by Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” starts with an elderly sailor stopping a man on the way to a wedding.
- “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar Allan Poe weaves the tale of the lovely Annabel Lee. This love song is tragic because Annabel Lee dies, leaving behind her lover to mourn her life.
- “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns. This lyrical ballad compares love to a rose, and Bob Dylan once called it his “single biggest inspiration.” Because it has lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter woven throughout, it fits the literary ballad tradition, even though it is not a narrative poem.
Ballad poems are poems that tell a story and are meant to be read to an audience. Learn about the three distinct parts of a ballad poem and enjoy reading examples of ballad poems.
Moreover, the poem's content, such as knights and fairy tales, aligns with the elements commonly found in ballads and medieval romance. Thus, the poem's structure and content resonate aptly with the ballad form, which provides a fitting rhythm and structure for the narrative.
The ballad is one of the oldest poetic forms in English. There are so many different types of ballad that giving one strict definition to fit all the variations would be nearly impossible. The simplest way to think of a ballad is as a song or poem that tells a story and has a bouncy rhythm and rhyme scheme.
