Ballads
GCSE: English Literature
| Title: |
Ballads |
| Description |
Ballad is a relatively short narrative poem, written to be sung, with a simple and dramatic action. The ballads tell of love, death, the supernatural, or a combination of these. Two characteristics of the ballad are incremental repetition and the ballad stanza. Incremental repetition repeats one or more lines with small but significant variations that advance the action. The ballad stanza is four lines: commonly, the first and third lines contain four feet or accents and the second and fourth lines contain three feet. Ballads often open abruptly, present brief descriptions and use concise dialogue. I would like to examine three of the traditional ballads to show what they have in common.” The ballads which I have decided to use are: “Lord Randal”, “Edward, Edward” and “Earl Brand”. |
| Word Count: |
900 |
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At the beginning we can see the similarity. The ballads’ titles have names and show a concrete person who will be the main character: Lord Randal, Edward and the smart school boy.
The first poem “Lord Randal” is a typical traditional ballad. The title announces what the story will be about. There is a special manipulation in the text because the whole production is a kind of conversation between the main character who is Lord Randal and the author. The asking voice always presents two questions in which the last part is the same. In the first one it is “Lord Randal, my son” and in the second one it is “my handsome young man”. The author wants to know everything about Lord Randal. The main character answers questions and in this way tells his story. We can see a strong relationship between Lord Randal and his mother. In each verse he repeats “mother, make me bed soon”. The next stable sentence which usually ends each stanza is “For I’m wearied wi hunting, and fain wad lie down.” These sentences are the permanent elements in the text. The exception is the last verse when he says “For I’m sick at heart, and fain wad lie down”. All of the questions make Lord Randal upset.
The creation compacts from the six stanzas. Each stanza has four lines. Each verse considers two questions and two answers. The poem intertwines rhymes a, b, a, b. It makes the story more energetic and rhythmic. The theme of the story is clear. It shows a man who came from hunting and his mother doesn’t believe him. She asks a lot of questions.
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