Ballad Poetry

Ballad

A ballad is a poem that is meant to be sung; this poetry form grows out of the folk song, to which traveling minstrels would often add their own verses until they were quite long.  As such, a ballad is usually divided into rhythmic stanzas and often has a recurring refrain. Some ballads have musical exclamations or other rhythmic nonsense such as a “tra la la” thrown in; the poem below throws in the odd second line of “with a hey down down a down down.”  The topic can vary widely, but the most common ballad meter alternates lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming.  This is one of the many ballads of Robin Hood. 

ROBIN HOOD AND MAID MARIAN (NO. 150)

1  A bonny fine maid of a noble degree,
With a hey down down a down down
Maid Marian calld by name,
   Did live in the North, of excellent worth,
For she was a gallant dame.

2  For favour and face, and beauty most rare,
Queen Hellen shee did excell;
   For Marian then was praisd of all men
That did in the country dwell.

 
3  'Twas neither Rosamond nor Jane Shore,
Whose beauty was clear and bright,
   That could surpass this country lass,
Beloved of lord and knight.

 
4  The Earl of Huntington, nobly born,
That came of noble blood,
   To Marian went, with a good intent,
By the name of Robin Hood.

 
5  With kisses sweet their red lips meet,
For shee and the earl did agree;
   In every place, they kindly imbrace,
With love and sweet unity.

-- From The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by Francis James Child, 1888.