What is a ballad?

Jennifer

Reading — Advanced Level
Share this exercise
Activity

Read the text and answer the questions

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French chanson balladée or ballade, which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Britain and Ireland from the later medieval period until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America. Ballads are often 13 lines with an ABABBCBC form, consisting of couplets, of rhymed verse, each of 14 syllables. Another common form is ABAB or ABCB repeated, in alternating 8 and 6 syllable lines.

Many ballads were written and sold as single sheet broadsides. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular love song and is often used for any love song, particularly the sentimental ballad of pop or rock music, although the term is also associated with the concept of a stylized storytelling song or poem, particularly when used as a title for other media such as a film.

Ballads were originally written to accompany dances, and so were composed in couplets with refrains in alternate lines. These refrains would have been sung by the dancers in time with the dance. Most northern and west European ballads are written in ballad stanzas or quatrains of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) tetrameter and iambic trimeter , known as ballad meter.

Ballads usually are heavily influenced by the regions in which they originate and use the common dialect of the people. Scotland's ballads in particular, both in theme and language, are strongly characterised by their distinctive tradition, even exhibiting some pre-Christian influences in the inclusion of supernatural elements The ballads do not have any known author or correct version; instead, having been passed down mainly by oral tradition since the Middle Ages, there are many variations of each.
Source: Wikipedia
  1. What is a narrative poem?
  2. What were ballads originally intended for?
  3. Which consists of four lines?
  4. Where does a refrain usually occur?
  5. Which is likely NOT true about ballads?
Submit
Discussion

Practice your writing skills by discussing the questions below

  1. What are the specific characteristics of a ballad?
  2. How are ballads recited/read?
  3. Do you know of any ballad? What is it?
    Jennifer

    Need help?

    Ask a question or reserve a class with Jennifer

    Vocabulary

    Translate

    From English
    To
    No translation
    © bitgab LLC
    Terms Privacy Cookies Advertise Learn English online blog Facebook Twitter