Introducing the Poem Literary Focus: Ballad Reading Focus: Understanding Purpose Writing Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer TechFocus Feature Menu Lord Randall

Introducing the Poem What happens when true love goes wrong?

Click on the title to start the video. Lord Randall Introducing the Poem

Love is whatever you can still betray.... Betrayal can only happen if you love. John le Carré

Sensationalism in the Middle Ages These aren’t the latest tabloid headlines. They’re the plots of medieval ballads. In the Middle Ages, just as today, some forms of popular entertainment tended toward the sensational. Lord Randall Introducing the Poem Slighted Woman Spurns Lover’s Deathbed Request Three Dead Sons Visit Mother for Dinner

Poetry of the People Ballads were the poetry of the people, just as popular music is today. Ballads had subjects such as Lord Randall Introducing the Poem domestic tragedy false love the supernatural What modern popular songs can you think of that have these same subjects?

Song and Dance Lord Randall Introducing the Poem The word ballad is derived from an Old French word meaning “dancing song.” The structure and meter of the English ballads make it clear that they were intended to be sung to music. Listen to part of the ballad.

Poetry of the People The ballads of the Middle Ages Lord Randall Introducing the Poem were passed down orally from singer to singer had strong beats and repetition were a gift of story passed from generation to generation

Lord Randall Introducing the Poem In this ballad, Lord Randall has just returned from the forest. He tells his mother that all he wants to do is lie down. Is Lord Randall simply tired from hunting? What happened in the forest? Was there some kind of foul play, as his mother suspects? [End of Section]

Ballads are songs or songlike poems that tell stories in simple, rhythmic language. Lord Randall Literary Focus: Ballad Ballads usually include sensational or tragic subject matter omitted details supernatural events a refrain—a repeated word, line, or group of lines

Ballad singers often used certain conventions: Lord Randall Literary Focus: Ballad incremental repetition—repeating a phrase or sentence, adding a new element each time, to build suspense “O where hae ye been, Lord Randall, my son? “Where gat ye your dinner, Lord Randall, my son? “What gat ye to your dinner, Lord Randall, my son?”

Ballad singers often used certain conventions: Lord Randall Literary Focus: Ballad question-and-answer format—a series of questions whose answers reveal facts of the story little by little; used to build suspense “O where hae ye been, Lord Randall, my son? O where hae ye been, my handsome young man?” “I hae been to the wild wood; mother, make my bed soon, For I’m weary wi’ hunting and fain wald lie down.”

Ballad singers often used certain conventions: Lord Randall Literary Focus: Ballad conventional phrases— word groups understood by listeners to have a meaning beyond the literal one a strong, simple beat relatively uncomplicated verse forms verse forms [End of Section]

Ballad Verse Forms Ballads are generally written in groups of four lines called stanzas. The earliest ballads were simple. Later, authors began writing so-called “literary ballads” with a formal abcb rhyme scheme. Lord Randall Literary Focus: Ballad

Lord Randall Reading Focus: Understanding Purpose Although the author of “Lord Randall” is unknown, we can determine the author’s purpose from details in the text, such as dialogue images repetition In “Lord Randall,” the mother repeats several phrases in each stanza. That repetition indicates that she loves her boy and is upset by his behavior. We can guess that the ballad’s purpose is to share a tragic event with listeners.

[End of Section] Lord Randall Reading Focus: Understanding Purpose Into Action: As you read, note details that help you determine the purposes of the ballads. Use a chart like the one below to record your findings. Lord Randall Get Up and Bar Edward, Edward the Door Details: Purpose: mother’s pleading tone to move to sadness

Lord Randall Writing Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer [End of Section] Find It in Your Reading Repetition is an essential feature of ballads. Incremental repetition—a phrase or sentence that is repeated with a new element each time—helps advance the story until the climax is reached. As you read, pay special attention to the use of repetition.

Lord Randall Writing Focus: Think as a Reader/Writer As you read, think about what a music video version of a ballad might look like. TechFocus [End of Section]

The End

QuickWrite

Think of songs you know that tell stories about people’s lives. Then, choose the song you know best, and retell it in your own words. [End of Section] Lord Randall QuickWrite

Build Background

This ballad is sung in diverse versions in several countries. The basic story varies little, but Randall is variously known as Donald, Randolph, Ramsay, Ransome, and Durango. Sometimes his last meal consists of fish, sometimes snakes. The dialect of the version you will read is Scottish. This ballad, like many others, is sung entirely as a conversation in a question-and-answer format that builds suspense. Lord Randall Build Background

The ballads as we know them today probably took their form in the fifteenth century, but they were not printed until Sir Thomas Percy published a number of them in Sir Thomas Percy Inspired by Percy, Sir Walter Scott and others traveled around the British Isles and collected the songs from the people who still sang them. [End of Section]

Read with a Purpose

Read this ballad to discover what happened to Lord Randall in the “wild wood.” Lord Randall [End of Section]