Entertainment / Literature / Ballad: In common parlance, song hits, folk music, and folktales or any song that tells a story are loosely called ballads. In more exact literary terminology, a ballad is a narrative poem consisting of quatrains of iambic tetrameter alternating with iambic trimeter. Common traits of the ballad are that (a) the beginning is often abrupt, (b) the story is told through dialogue and action (c) the language is simple or 'folksy,' (d) the theme is often tragic--though comic ballads do exist, and (e) the ballad contains a refrain repeated several times. One of the most important anthologies of ballads is F. J. Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Famous medieval and Renaissance examples include 'Chevy Chase,' 'The Elfin Knights,' 'Lord Randal,' and 'The Demon Lover.' A number of Robin Hood ballads also exist. More recent ballads from the 18th century and the Scottish borderlands include 'Sir Patrick Spens,' 'Tam Lin,' and 'Thomas the Rhymer.' See also ballade and common measure.
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Entertainment / Literature / Ballade: A French verse form consisting most often of three eight-line stanzas having the same rhyme pattern, followed by a four-line envoy. In a typical ballade, the last lines of each stanza and of the envoy MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Ballad Measure: Traditionally, ballad measure consists of a four-line stanza or a quatrain containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines with an ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme. Works written in ballad measure MORE
Lifestyle / Poetry / Ballad Stanza: Quatrain rhyming abcb and alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. MORE