What Is Ballad

The Ballad

The word Ballad derived from Latin and Italian"Ballara" which means to dance. Fundamentally, a Ballad is a song that tells a story and originally was a musical accompaniment to dance. some of the characteristics of Ballad are :

•The beginning is often abrupt.
•The language is simple
•The story is told through dialogue and action.
•The theme is often tragic.

Apart from these characteristics, a Ballad usually deals with a single episode, the events leading to the crisis are related swiftly. There is minimal detail of surroundings. There's a strong dramatic element,there's considerable intensity, the narrator is impersonal. There's frequently incremental repetition, the single tone of action and the speed of the story preclude much attempt at delineation , imagery is simple.

There are two kinds of Ballads :

•The Folk or Traditional Ballad 
•Literary Ballad

The former is anonymous and is transmitted from singer to singer by word of mouth. It belongs to oral tradition, the Folk Ballad has tended to flourish among semi literate people in rural environment.
The later kind of Ballad is not anonymous and written down by a poet as he composes it. This consideration apart Ballads of both tradition have distinct similarity.

Many historians and critics distinguished a third kind of Ballad - The Popular Ballad. This kind of Ballad tends to be associated with semi literate or literate urban rather than rural communities and is often very realistic, unheroic, comic or satirical. It's sometimes called a Roadside Ballad or Street Ballad.

The Ballad Poet drew his materials from community life,from local and national history, from legend and folklore. These tales are usually of adventure,war,love,death and the supernatural. Important sources of Ballads are in England were the stories and legend of Robin Hood. Since early in the eighteen century,  there had been several important collection of Ballad literature namely Allan Ramsay's "The Tea Table Miscellany". Among Ballads in the literary tradition, there are several distinguished works specially S.T Coleridge's" Ancient Mariner", John Keats's "La Belle Dam Sans Mercy" etc.

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