English Literature / Unit 5 ENL 0409 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Popular Ballad
Captions available
The idea
The popular or folk ballad is an anonymous narrative song, passed on orally and altered in transmission, centred on a dramatic event and full of repetition and refrain. Francis James Child later gathered three hundred and five English and Scottish ballads. The exam's first sample question defines it.
In practice
Anonymous, sung, dramatic, repeated.
Where people slip
Oral ballads exist in many versions.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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