Poetry Unit Lesson 2 Ballad What is it

Poetry Unit Lesson 2: Ballad

What is it? • A lively storytelling poem written in ballad stanza • It is NOT sentimental and slow like ballad music.

Topics Ballads: • Any story you wish to tell: Just SIT right BACK and you’ll HEAR a TALE, A TALE of a FATEful TRIP That STARted FROM this TROpic PORT A-BOARD this TIny SHIP Why are there certain letters capitalized and bolded?

Writing style: • Ballads jump from scene to scene, each stanza representing a scene, without much narrative or exposition • Often, ballads use dialogue, rather than narration, to advance the plot. For example: “He Says, ‘You’re a beggar man, I suppose? ’ He says, ‘Boy, get some occupation, Be of some value to your nation. ’” • Often they contain refrain lines, which may be nonsense (“fol-de-rolly-o!”) or details that the poem returns to continually (“Praise God an m’big right han/I will live and die a banana man”) • The narrator is sometimes anonymous or unidentifiable, so the focus is on the storyteller. Why then is “The Song of the Banana Man” different?

Format: • Stanza=four lines of alternating four-beat (tetrameter) and three beat (trimeter) verse • Line 2 rhymes with line 4 • Sometimes poems vary a bit; for example, Poe adds an extra pair of lines in “Annabel Lee” It was many a year ago, In the kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me. Where are the beats? Highlight the sections…Does it fit 4, 3, 4, 3?