CHAPTER XVII THE BALLAD The narrative of the communal ballad is full of leaps and omissions; the style is simple to a fault; the diction is spontaneous and free. Assonance frequently takes the place of rhyme, and a word often rhymes with itself. There is a lack of poetic adornment in the style quite as conspicuous as the lack of reflection and moralizing in the matter. Metaphor and simile are rare and when found are for the most part standing phrases common to all the ballads; there is never poetry for poetry's sake.-F. B. GUMMERE, The Ballad, Warner Library. The ballad originally was a narrative poem in lyric form with no known individual authorship, having been preserved to us by oral tradition. As a poetic form it is well worth studying, not alone for its narrative and poetic interest but for its vigor, picturesque quality, and spontaneity. The true ballad, of course, is a finished chapter, but modern imitations now and then appear. The ballad-meter of England and Scotland was taken in imitation from the septenary, a rhymed Latin hymn meter of seven feet, or accents. Ballads therefore were originally written in long lines, as in the following, which has been slightly modernized in spelling: THE ANCIENT BALLAD OF CHEVY CHASE The Persé out of Northumberlande, and a vowe to God mayde he That he wolde hunte in the mountayns of Chyviat within days three. These long lines, technically known as fourteens as they often numbered fourteen syllables, were afterwards broken up into stanzas of four short lines of iambic tetrameter alternated with trimeter, which accounts for the two unrhymed lines in our modern versions. FAIR ANNIE OF LOCHROYAN Tak' down, tak' down, the mast o' goud; Tak' down, tak' down, the sails o' silk; Set up the sails o' skin; Ill sets the outside to be gay, Whan there's sic grief within! It This now forms our modern ballad measure. must be noted, however, that the iambus is often freely mingled with other feet, chiefly the anapæst, so that it is not always easy to scan the ballad in iambic feet. Ballad poetry makes effective use of repetition and contrast as is shown in the above example. One of the most dramatic of the old ballads is the gruesome "Edward, Edward," a dialogue between mother and son in which the mother finally worms from the young man the admission that he has killed his father at her instigation. Quhy dois zour brand sae drop wi bluid, Quhy dois zour brand sae drop wi bluid O, I hae kill'd my hauke sae guid, Ballads, like all folk poetry, make large use of the refrain, or burden. They were chanted or "lilted" by one person, and the recurrent refrain gave opportunity for the bystanders to join in the chorus. Sometimes it referred to the subject of the ballad and sometimes it did not. This feature has been successfully imitated in the ballads of some modern poets. Rossetti, a true lover of the ballad form, uses three refrains in "Sister Helen. Kingsley uses an irregular refrain in "The Sands of Dee." Macaulay, in his spirited "Ivry," uses the characteristic ballad repetition. A thousand spurs are striking deep, a thousand spears in rest, A thousand knights are pressing close behind the snow-white crest. The fact that a thousand knights would have two thousand spurs, does not impair the vigor of the verse. The recurrence of the words, "King Henry of Navarre" at the end of each stanza has the effect of a refrain. In this connection, study some of the great chants of the Bible, like "The Song of Moses and the Children of Israel," in the 15th chapter of Exodus, where Miriam sings the refrain: "Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea;” and the Song of Deborah (Judges V), the Song of Hannah (I Samuel II), and its echo in the Magnificat. (St. Luke: 1:46.) Tennyson's "Lady Clare," and Longfellow's "Wreck of the Hesperus," are beautiful examples of the modern ballad, and Kipling has breathed new life into the old form in many a spirited poem. EXERCISES FOR CLASS USE AND SELF-INSTRUCTION I. line? How many metrical feet compose the usual ballad 2. How does any ballad you may select differ from a selected short-story? 3. Tell the story of an old English ballad in a brief prose paragraph. 4. Select a short-story and narrate it in ballad form. Be careful to adopt a suitable meter. 5. Give three themes suitable for modern balladsthese themes need not be original, but may be suggested by current stories. 6. Write the prose outline for a short ballad, using some current event of romantic interest. |