Poetic Form: Ballads

[KillerMuffin]

A ballad:

1) A short narrative, which is usually but not always, arrangedin four-line stanzas with a distinctive and memorable meter.
2) Usual ballad meter is a first and third line with four stresses (iambic tetrameter) and a second and fourth line with three stresses (iambic trimeter). Trochaic meter is not unheard of.
3) Rhyme scheme: abab or abcb.
4) Subject matter is distinctive: almost always communal (as in community, not as in communing/communication) stories of lost love, supernatural happenings, or recent/current events.
5) Ballad makers (in the past always male, nowdays, egalitarian) use popular and local speech and dialogue often and vividly to convey the story, as opposed to poetic, standard, or non-vernacularized speech patterns.




This is from Mark Strand and Eavan Boland's "The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms".




Because I have to write one with a "current event" as the subject matter, and I'm pouting because I'm sucking at putting current events and iambic tetrameter together, I thought I'd share. Actually, sharing helps me get the form lodged in my head. Weird how that works, huh?

 

[champagne1982]

How about ... On The Quayle Trail or How Bill Got In The Way?

 

[champagne1982]

I wrote this one way back when neo first started the 30 in 30 thread...

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.
Dan Quayle, 11/30/88

Gunnin' for Quayle

Is it because your name's wrong for the bird
that we get this absurd
view of life, Mr. Quayle?

It astounds to no end how you mix metaphor
then confuse us by telling us more
gibberish, Mr. Quayle.

We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur.
Dan Quayle, 9/22/90

Enter the dick. Richard by name, he's found there,
far to the right. Not trying to scare
you but the man has a gun, Mr. Quayle.

Be glad you've never been invited to hunt birds
with the Cheney cronies, I've heard
that they shoot, Mr. Quayle.

Now, I know it's not a ballad... but it was fun to write.

 

[My Erotic Trail]

I think this is my Favorite of my ballads... although "Amarillo Rose" runs a close second <grin

part one of a four part ballad...
A French Rose: Art of Archery

 

[Maria2394]

I always thought of this as a ballad. Its not the form you need though, but a good song

maria

~~
Rocky Raccoon, by the Beatles

Now somewhere in the black mountain hills of Dakota
There lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoon
And one day his woman ran off with another guy
Hit young Rocky in the eye Rocky didn't like that
He said I'm gonna get that boy
So one day he walked into town
Booked himself a room in the local saloon.

Rocky Raccoon checked into his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Rocky had come equipped with a gun
To shoot off the legs of his rival
His rival it seems had broken his dreams
By stealing the girl of his fancy.
Her name was Magil and she called herself Lil
But everyone knew her as Nancy.
Now she and her man who called himself Dan
Were in the next room at the hoe down
Rocky burst in and grinning a grin
He said Danny boy this is a showdown
But Daniel was hot-he drew fast and shot
And Rocky collapsed in the corner.

Now the doctor came in stinking of gin
And proceeded to lie on the table
He said Rocky you met your match
And Rocky said, Doc it's only a scratch
And I'll be better I'll be better doc as soon as I am able.

Now Rocky Raccoon he fell back in his room
Only to find Gideon's bible
Gideon checked out and he left it no doubt
To help with good Rocky's revival.

 

[Tzara]

A ballad:

1) A short narrative, which is usually but not always, arrangedin four-line stanzas with a distinctive and memorable meter.
2) Usual ballad meter is a first and third line with four stresses (iambic tetrameter) and a second and fourth line with three stresses (iambic trimeter). Trochaic meter is not unheard of.
3) Rhyme scheme: abab or abcb.
4) Subject matter is distinctive: almost always communal (as in community, not as in communing/communication) stories of lost love, supernatural happenings, or recent/current events.
5) Ballad makers (in the past always male, nowdays, egalitarian) use popular and local speech and dialogue often and vividly to convey the story, as opposed to poetic, standard, or non-vernacularized speech patterns.




This is from Mark Strand and Eavan Boland's "The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms".




Because I have to write one with a "current event" as the subject matter, and I'm pouting because I'm sucking at putting current events and iambic tetrameter together, I thought I'd share. Actually, sharing helps me get the form lodged in my head. Weird how that works, huh?

Hey, KM.

I am not (so not) an English major. So let me ask for clarification: Is Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" a ballad in your definition? Is that the kind of thing you mean?

If not, can you give an example?

 

[Never]

Can anyone answer Tzara's question?

 

[cherries_on_snow]

I'd say it's a ballad despite the odd numbering of the stanzas, but not one I'd use to typify the form and not Keats at his best. To be fair, though, Keats was dying of TB at the time and might be forgiven for his lack of originality, here. I might get off my ass and look for a ballad I like much better unless anyone knows the one I speak of. It is a conversation between a man and his mother after the man was poisoned by his lover. During the conversation, the mother realizes the man is dying. Anyone remember that one? I hate that I left my textbooks in Canada.