Barbra Allen Analysis

1. Barbra Allen Analysis Danielle Hickman

2. About the Author • Folk Ballad • Author is unknown • This was a story passed down from generation to generation.

3. Genre of the Poem • Folk Ballad

4. Interpretation of Poem • Sir John Graeme was in love with Barbra Allen. He sent one of his men down to get her. She found him dying in his bed. He was dying from lack of her love. She told him he shouldn’t have cheated on her with other women. She went home and heard the death bell ringing and knew he had died. She, then, asked her mother to make her death bed and she died of a broken heart.

5. Theme • If you leave someone because of the bad they have done, it doesn’t mean that you stopped loving them. Once you fall in love with someone, it takes a lot of time to fall out of love.

6. Defining Different Words • Martinmas - during the Fall. • Sal – shall • Dinna ye mind – don’t you remember? • Gane – gone • Jow – stroke • Reft - deprived

7. Allusions • This poem doesn’t have any allusions.

8. A more modern translation • It was around the time of Fall, when the leaves were falling; John Greame fell in love with Barbra Allen. • He sent is friend through town to find Barbra Allen. He asked her to come see his friend John. • Slowly, she went to where John was and when she saw him, she told him she thought he was dying.

9. Cont… • He sais he was very sick and it was for Barbra Allen. She said he would never be good enough for her even though he spilling his heart out to her. • She asked him if he remember running around on her with other people. • He told everyone goodbye and told them to be nice to Barbra Allen.

10. Cont…. • She slowly got up and left him, sad that she could not stay. • She walked two miles and heard the death bell ringing. Every ring it rang told her that he just died for her. • She told her mother to make her bed, since her lover died for her today, she would die for him tomorrow.