In your journal, respond to the following questions: Have you heard of a ballad before? What do you think a ballad is? Can you think of any examples of ballads?

…of the ballad form

Preservation of Ballads Centuries-old in practice, the composition of ballads began in the European folk tradition, in many cases accompanied by musical instruments. Ballads were not originally written down, but instead were passed along generations by being sung.

Subject Matter Then: In the past, ballads had primary topics they addressed. Their subject matter dealt with religious themes, love, tragedy, domestic crimes, and sometimes even political propaganda. Now: Anything you want!

Print Ballads began to make their way into print in fifteenth-century England. During the Renaissance, making and selling ballad broadsides became a popular practice, though these songs rarely earned the respect of artists because their authors, called "pot poets," often were among the lower classes.

Eventually however… The ballad form evolved into a writer’s sport. In other words…?

Structure, devices, and so on

Structure A ballad is a story poem with a strong rhyme and rhythm. Ballads are traditionally songs, or at least song-like. The classic ballad stanza has 4 lines, with the lines alternating between eight syllables and six syllables.

Features Cont. In each line, every other syllable is emphasized, creating that sing-song: da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM da-DUM rhythm The second and fourth lines rhyme, but the first and third don't have to (still, they frequently do).

Gilligan’s Island I promise there is rhyme to my reason here - or reason to my rhyme.

…of ballad poetry.

A ballad stanza in a poem Has lines as long as these. In measuring the lines, we find We get both fours and threes.

God prosper long our noble king, Our liffes and saftyes all! A woefull hunting once there did In Chevy Chase befall..

The fair breeze blew, the white foam flew, The furrows followed free; We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea.

The brain is deeper than the sea, For, hold them, blue to blue, The one the other will absorb As sponges, buckets do.

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I’m found, Was blind, but now I see.