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But over the centuries, more modern poets have used the ballad form to write other kinds of poems, from meditative lyrics to poems responding to contemporary events. These often retain features of the ballad to a greater or lesser extent, however. Below, we introduce and discuss eight of the finest examples of the ballad in poetry. 1.
- “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats
- “The Rime of The Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
- “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe
- “A Red, Red Rose” by Robert Burns
- “The Ballad of The Red Earl” by Rudyard Kipling
- “The Solitary Reaper” by William Wordsworth
- “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” by Oscar Wilde
- ”The Ballad of Father Gilligan” by William Butler Yeats
- “Bonnie Barbara Allen”
- “John Henry”
One of the oldest known English ballad poems, “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” means “The Beautiful Lady Without Mercy. This poem is one of the best examples of ballads because it perfectly follows the ABCB rhyme scheme. Like many of Keats’s poems, this focuses on love and death. In the poem, a fairy seduces a knight and then condemns him to an untimely...
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. He begins a harrowing tale of life at sea, his poor choice of shooting an albatross, and the penance he pays for his mistake. With over 600 lines, this poem is quite long for a traditional ballad, but it still fits...
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. This poem is famous because it is the last poem Poe completed before his death, and its publication occurred after the death of the poet.
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. While the meter and rhyme scheme make this poem an example of a ballad, it is also ...
Kipling modeled “The Ballad of the Red Earl” after the traditional ballad poems of the Scottish Border country. He uses many abbreviations that come from the Scottish language. The poem mocks fun at Earl Spencer, and he published the poem just two days afteran infamous speech made by the Earl. In the following excerpt, Kipling accuses the Earl of b...
As one of the best-known poems of Wordsworth, “The Solitary Reaper” earns a spot on this list. It explores the beauty of a Highland lass harvesting crops in a field and singing a sad song that passersby can hear. Since many ballads are also songs, it is fitting that this poem is about a girl singing an unknown song. It praises music as a form of be...
This famous ballad starts out tragic as the main character lies dead. The poem tells about a man subject to the death penalty after spending many years in prison. Wilde uses the meter of the poem well, helping the reader get a feel for the pounding, boring rhythm of daily life in prison.
In this poem, Yeats tells the story of a tired old priest whose flock is fighting illness. He gets called to the bedside of a dying man, only to fall asleep. When he awakens, the man has died. He sneaks out, then comes back as if for the first time to perform last rites, all without the family knowing he fell asleep on the job.
Though the author’s name has gotten lost in history, “Bonny Barbara Allen” remains one of the more popular folk ballads. This song tells the tragic story of a lord who calls on the winsome Barbara Allen while sick in bed, only to have his love spurned. The first known references to this poem came from the 1600s, making it one of the older poems on ...
Another famous folk ballad, “John Henry,” comes from the culture of African-American workers. It tells the story of a heroic black working man, and it likely originated as a work song. Whether or not John Henry was based on a real person remains a debate among historians, but the song has taken its place among the best ballads ever.
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Why is a ballad important in literature?
A writer today would be most likely to write a ballad out of the desire to tell an emotional story through song. This, however, is just the most common usage of "ballad"—the term can still be used by poets to describe poetry that tells a story, regardless of its meter and rhyme.
Ultimately, as a form of narrative verse, most ballads are associated with some aspect of telling a story. Here are some common examples of subject matter found in a ballad: tragic romance; reimagination of legends; religion, life, and death; recounting historical events; the supernatural; happy love stories; honor of warriors/soldiers; despair ...
Mar 14, 2024 · 1. Think about a memorable event or tale. A ballad can also be an exaggeration or fictionalization of a memorable event that happened to you. Maybe you have a funny story from when you were a teenager or perhaps you have a good family tale that you’d like to retell from your perspective.
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Example 1. Johnny Cash’s timeless classic “Boy Named Sue” is a great example of a ballad put to music. The story is about a boy whose father names him Sue just before leaving. Humiliated, the young boy goes on a quest to find his father and take revenge for the terrible insult of being given a girl’s name.
Examples of Ballads in Literature. 1. Muriel Rukeyser, “The Ballad of Orange and Grape” Activist Muriel Rukeyser wrote this poem about how the inequalities in urban areas can seem senseless to the point of randomness: Most of the windows are boarded up,the rats run out of a sack –sticking out of the crummy garageone shiny long Cadillac;
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