1 / 10

Ballads

Ballads. What is it?. A song/narrative spoken poem that tells a story Focuses on one incident Begins in the middle of a crisis Proceeds to the resolution with little background information, character development, or descriptive detail. Common Topics. Early Ballads often included:.

connor
Download Presentation

Ballads

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Ballads

  2. What is it? • A song/narrative spoken poem that tells a story • Focuses on one incident • Begins in the middleof a crisis • Proceeds to the resolution with little background information, character development, or descriptive detail

  3. Common Topics Early Ballads often included: • Tragic love • Domestic conflicts • Wars • Shipwrecks • Sensational crimes • Exploits of outlaws

  4. Just like today with tabloid headlines and soap operas, certain forms of popular entertainment tended toward the sensational. Plot Examples: • Three dead sons visit mother for dinner • A maiden is headed for the gallows, and her family refuses to help

  5. Traditional Structure • Four lines per stanza • Second and fourth lines rhyme and are often shorter than the first and third lines (ABCB rhyme scheme)

  6. On Top of Spaghetti… On top of spaghetti,All covered with cheese,I lost my poor meatball,When somebody sneezed. It rolled off the table,And on to the floor,And then my poor meatball,Rolled out of the door. It rolled in the garden,And under a bush,And then my poor meatball,Was nothing but mush. The mush was as tastyAs tasty could be,And then the next summer,It grew into a tree. The tree was all covered,All covered with moss,And on it grew meatballs,And tomato sauce. So if you eat spaghetti,All covered with cheese,Hold on to your meatball,Whenever you sneeze.

  7. Usual Formula • Stock descriptive phrases • A word or phrase habitually used by a group of people: a cliché • Example: blood-red wine • One less thing for the singer to remember • Refrain in each stanza (repetition) • Contributed to the song’s rhythm and reinforced its theme • Provided the singer with time to think of the next verse • Incremental repetition • A line or stanza is repeated, but with an addition that advances the story

  8. Characteristics • Treats a highly dramatic situation in the simplest language • Uses a considerable amount of dialogue (sometimes local dialect) • Because ballads were well-known, the folk balladeer could often skip parts, which allowed him to develop parts that interested him. This accounts for the gaps in plots – “leaping and lingering”

  9. Characteristics continued • Ballads deal with: • Strong elemental passions of humanity • Powerfully depicted love, hatred, faith, revenge, fear, courage, or loyalty • Many involve the supernatural and end tragically

  10. Your Task • Read and analyze the sample ballad on your handout. Identify the structure and characteristics (topic) of the poem. • Create your own ballad using either your own topic or a tabloid sample. Remember, the structure of a ballad is just as important as the entertainment value.

More Related