English Literature / Unit 1 ENL 0030 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Ballad and the Ballad Stanza
Captions available
The idea
A ballad is a narrative poem, often sung, usually in quatrains rhyming abcb, with refrains and repetition. Coleridge borrowed the form: "It is an ancient Mariner, / And he stoppeth one of three." Folk ballads are anonymous and passed on orally.
In practice
A story in rhymed four-line stanzas.
Where people slip
A literary ballad imitates a folk one.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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