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Ballads originally became popular in the late medieval period, and were designed to be sung and danced to: the word ‘ballad’ is derived from the Latin balar, ‘to dance’. The ballad form is often used to tell a story: a tragic love story, for instance, or else a tale of adventure and high romance.
- Ballad Definition
- Ballad Examples
- Why Do Writers Choose to Write Ballads?
- Other Helpful Ballad Resources
What is a ballad? Here’s a quick and simple definition: Some additional key details about ballads: 1. The ballad is one of the oldest poetic forms in English. 2. 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 po...
The following examples of ballads show several types of variations of the form. To help highlight the structure of each example, we've highlighted all "A" rhymes in green, "B" rhymes in red, and "C" rhymes in yellow.
As the ballad has undergone major shifts in form and content throughout its centuries-long history, the answer to why poets write ballads question differs, primarily based on the era in which a ballad was written. Folk ballads—the oldest form of ballad—were generally transmitted orally, so the repetitive form of the ballad was helpful for memorizat...
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Examples of Ballads in Literature. As a literary device and form of narrative verse, balladry represents a melodious form of storytelling. Therefore, the ballad has greatly impacted poetry and poets across time. Here are some examples of ballads in literature and the lasting value of these works.
- “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.
La Belle Dame sans Merci. by John Keats. ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ by John Keats is one of the best-known poems in English literature, reflecting on death, horror, and love. If there's one ballad you should read in your lifetime, it's 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by John Keats.
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;
—“Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty. Half of what I say is meaningless. But I say it just to reach you, Julia. Julia, Julia, oceanchild, calls me. So I sing a song of love, Julia. Julia, seashell eyes, windy smile, calls me. So I sing a song of love, Julia. —“Julia” by The Beatles. When she was just a girl. She expected the world.
