Ballad: A popular song, often recited aloud, narrating a story, and passed down orally. Over 300 traditional english ballads, in up to 25 versions each, were edited as the so-called 'child ballads' (named after the editor, f. J. Child) 1882-98. Examples of the form include 'sir patrick spens,' 'twa sisters of binnorie,' 'the three ravens,' the lyrical ballads by william wordsworth and s. T. Coleridge, and 'la belle dame sans merci' by john keats. See also broadside ballads.

 

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Ballad: A popular song, often recited aloud, narrating a story, and passed down orally. Over 300 traditional english ballads, in up to 25 versions each, were edited as the so-called 'child ballads' . . . View Full Definition

Ballade: Poem with three seven-, eight-, or ten-line stanzas and refrain. Respectively, these have the rhyme schemes and envoys ababbcc bcbc (cf. Chaucer's 'ballade of good counsel'), ababbcbc bcbc ( . . . View Full Definition

Ballad Measure: Traditionally, ballad measure consists of a four-line stanza or a quatrain containing alternating four-stress and three-stress lines with an ABCB or ABAB rhyme scheme. Works written in balla . . . View Full Definition

Ballad Opera: English comic opera, usually featuring spoken dialogue alternating with songs set to popular tunes: also called dialogue opera.