Ballad
By Kirsten Pruitt
Overview/History of Ballad
Ballad was a form of folk song that had told an exciting store.Ballads were made up of simple words and rhymes. They were first created in Great Britain six or seven centuries ago.
Purpose of Ballad
The purpose of a Ballad poem is to tell a story through the form of a song or through a poem.
Characteristics of Ballads
four to three beats, often in quatrains, rhymed AB,AB, also they often tell a story. They usually rhyme and are divided into stanzas.
Example of Ballad's
Little Ballad Of A Sailor
By: Gaston Figueira Uruguayo
Translated by: Lloyd Mallan
Like an orchard what the night
with its bright fruit-like stars;
while drunken with sadness
to the transient ocean
the sailor was singing
in emotion and lament:
"At sea life is bitter;
my devotion is to the land!"
Clustered bright with stars and free
was that night like an orchard.
Then through the city, dense
and sweeping
went wandering the sailor
sorrowed by his pleasures
and his cold tight soul,
and heard weeping
the voice of his heart:
"On land life is bitter;
to the sea my devotion!"
And was free as an orchard that night
with its bright fruit trees of stars.
Works Cited
"Poetry Magazine." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2014.