Ballads traditionally referred to a short narrative poems that could be set to music.

In modern English poetry, the ballad form refers to a poem consisting of quatrains where the first and third lines are in iambic tetrameter and the second and fourth line are in iambic trimeter.¹

In other words, the accents of ballads generally follow this repeating pattern:

da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM
da DUM | da DUM | da DUM

Its rhyme scheme is abcb, i.e. the second and fourth lines rhyme.

However, a large variety of English poems have been considered ballads, and not all of which follow the above format strictly.

Examples of the Ballad Form

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The shadow of the linden-trees
Lay moving on the grass;
Between them and the moving boughs,
A shadow, thou didst pass.

- A Gleam of Sunshine

This particular stanza follows the strict interpretation of the ballad form. Note the rhyming second and fourthe lines in this stanza, and the meter:

The SHA | dow OF | the LIN | den-TREES
Lay MO | ving ON | the GRASS; |
BeTWEEN | them AND | the MO | ving BOUGHS,|
A SHA | dow, THOU | didst PASS.

Lewis Carroll

The sun was shining on the sea,
Shining with all his might:
He did his very best to make
The billows smooth and bright—
And this was odd, because it was
The middle of the night.

- The Walrus and the Carpenter, Stanza 1

Carroll adapts the ballad stanza to her poem by using stanzas of six lines instead of four, and switching the first foot of the second line from an iamb to a trochee for emphasis:

SHIning | with ALL | his MIGHT:

Note that Carroll maintains the pattern of alternating tetrameter and trimeter verses, and extends the rhyme scheme to abcbdb.

History of the Ballad Form

The origins of the ballad may be lost to time since the earliest preserved English ballad was composed no earlier than the 14th century.

However, several authors believe that the modern English ballad as a form of poetry has Teutonic origins, and that the word ballad was derived from the ballata – a type of Italian song – itself derived from the word ballare, to dance.

It is also believed that the ballad form is deeply rooted in the songs sung in England during the first millenium, and its characteristics were modified by the Normans after the Norman conquest of England, whose minstels commemorated the achievements of their ancestors and contemporaries.²

References