Genre Studies- Unit- IV- Ballad

BALLAD

Origin

    The Ballad arises out of folk literature. It is one of the oldest forms in English, older than Chaucer. Originally it was sung from village to village, to the accompaniment of a harp or a fiddle, by a strolling singer or a band of singers, who earned a living in this way. Ballad etymologically means a dancing song. English ballads were collected in Bishop Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, published in 1765.

Features

·             The Ballad is a short story in verse originally intended to be sung to an audience. It is developed at an early stage in man’s cultural evolution. Its subjects are deeds rather than thoughts. The tale is usually fierce and tragic and frequently introduces the supernatural.

·             The form may be summarized as follows: The poem is written in the Ballad Measure, a quatrain in which the first and third lines are four-foot iambic (a short syllable followed by a long), and the second and fourth three-foot iambic.

·             The tale opens abruptly, without any attempt at a systematic introduction. Sometimes it begins with questions and answers, which do not state who the speakers are but make the situation quite clear.

·             It is impersonal in treatment, with nothing to show the writer’s identity or personality. It is as though the tale told itself.

·         Often the same lines are repeated from stanza to stanza as a refrain, and stock phrases are freely used. The following stanza from “The Douglas Tragedy” illustrates the former.

O they rode on and on they rode,

  And all by the light of the moon,

Until they came to the wan water,

  And there they lighted down.

O they rode on and on they rode,

  And all by the light of the moon,

Until they came to his mother’s hall,

  And there they lighted down.

·             There is no attempt at detail of time or place, the Ballad belonging to a period when both could be ignored or left vague in the interest of the story.

Kinds of Ballad

    Ballads are primarily of two kinds: The Ballad of Growth or the Authentic Ballad and the Ballad of Art or the literary Ballad.

    The one is genuine, having grown up naturally among a primitive race, and the other initiative, being a conscious attempt at the Ballad matter. Some of the best known among the Authentic Ballads are “Chevy Chase”, “The Wife of Usher’s Well” and “Sir Patrick Spens”

    Among the Literary ones, Scott’s “Eve of St. John”, Coleridge’s “Rime of Ancient Mariner” and Keat’s “La Belle Dame Sans Merci”

    A minor form in the Ballad or the literary Ballad of Art is the Mock Ballad.