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The ballade form developed in France in the 14th and 15th century. It is usually written with three stanzas of seven, eight, or ten lines and a shorter final stanza (or envoy) of four or five lines. All stanzas end with the same one-line refrain. The envoy is used primarily as a summary or as a dedication or direct address to an important person.
The ballad is a short, narrative poem usually relating a single, dramatic event. It’s a poem that tells a story similar to a folk tale or legend and often has a repeated refrain. Two forms of the ballad are often distinguished—the folk ballad, dating from about the 12th century, and the literary ballad, dating from the late 18th century
Ballade
The lines of a ballade are iambic or anapestic tetrameter rhyming ababbcbc; the envoy, which forms a personal dedication to some person of importance or to a personification, rhymes bcbc. The last line (C) of the first stanza is repeated as a refrain throughout. Another pattern often employed consists of a ten-line stanza, in pentameters, rhyming ababbccdcd, with an envoy of five lines rhyming ccdcd.
Originally written for music, the ballade has been traced to medieval Italian and Provencal sources. The form was first elaborated in the work of the 14th-century French poet and composer Guillaume de Machaut, and the best-known examples are those of French poets of the 14th and 15th centuries, especially François Villon and Charles d'Orléans. The ballade became popular in England in the late 14th century and was adopted by Geoffrey Chaucer, who wrote several notable examples, including the Complaint ... to His Empty Purse. From the 16th to the late 19th century the form disappeared from English poetry, but such poets as Algernon Swinburne and Dante Gabriel Rossetti revived it.
The 12th- and 13th-century troubadours and trouvères composed ballades consisting solely of unharmonized melody (the troubadours called the form canzo). These early texts prefigure the standardized verse form. Machaut established the ballade as a multipart form. It became the favored secular song form through the end of the 14th century and persisted into the 15th. Indeed, the musical format typical of the ballade, that was often highly extravagant, for solo voice; the two lower parts usually played by instruments, influenced other forms and dominated European secular part-song into the 16th century.
Ready to write one? I’ve included examples along with the form layout. Good luck!
Ballade
The ballade is a French form built entirely on three rhyming sounds consisting of three 8-line stanzas and a 4-line or 5-line Envoy. The last line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the succeeding stanzas, including the Envoy, and states the main theme of the entire poem. The Envoy begins with an address to the individual to whom the poem is written. The pattern is (C2 is the refrain):
a
b
a
b
b
c
b
C2
a
b
a
b
b
c
b
C2
a
b
a
b
b
c
b
C2
Envoy (4-line version)
b
c
b
C2
Envoy (5-line version)
b
c
c
b
C2
As is normal in rhyming poetry, no rhyming word can be repeated in the poem; this requirement makes the ballade something of a challenge in English, which is in general a rhyme-poor language.
The meter originally was iambic tetrameter, but any meter can be employed as long as it is used consistently throughout.
Originally, the subjects of the ballade were serious philosophical, moral, or religious speculations. Most often, the shortness of human life formed the subject, as in this translation by Dante Gabriel Rossetti of Francois Villon's ballade with its famous refrain "But where are the snows of yesteryear?":
"The Ballade of Dead Ladies"
From the French of FRANCOIS VILLON
Tell me now in what hidden way is
Lady Flora the lovely Roman?
Where's Hipparchia, and where is Thais,
Neither of them the fairer woman?
Where is Echo, beheld of no man,
Only heard on river and mere--
She whose beauty was more than human? --
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Where's Heloise, the learned nun,
for whose sake Abeillard, I ween,
Lost manhood and put priesthood on?
(From Love he won such dule and teen!)
And where, I pray you, is the Queen
Who willed that Buridan should steer
Sewed in a sack's mouth down the Seine?--
But where are the snows of yester-year?
White Queen Blanche, like a queen of lilies,
With a voice like any mermaiden--
Bertha Broadfoot, Beatrice, Alice,
And Ermengarde the lady of Maine--
And that good Joan whom Englishmen
At Rouen doomed and burned her there--
Mother of God, where are they then?--
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Nay, never ask this week, fair lord,
Where they are gone, nor yet this year,
Except with this for an overword--
But where are the snows of yester-year?
Sir Edmund Gosse's ballade on the death of Theodore de Banville is a meditation of the loss to poetry of de Banville's talent; it is also a variant form, which uses a 10-line stanza built on four rhyming sounds with the pattern.
a
b
a
b
b
c
c
d
c
D2
Here, the second five lines of each stanza are a mirror image of the rhyming pattern of the first five lines:
"Ballade for the Funeral of the Last of the Joyous Poets"
[Ed. Note: Theodore de Banville (1823-1891) was a French Romantic poet noted for his graceful lyrics, his craftsmanship in the use of such intricate forms as the villanelle and the ballade, and his gentle sentiment and wit; Gosse uses his death to comment on the state of English poetry in the last years of the 19th century. --Howard]
One ballade more before we say goodnight,
O dying Muse, one mournful ballade more!
Then let the new men fall to their delight,
The Impressionist, the Decadent, a score
Of other fresh fanatics who adore
Quaint demons, and disdain thy golden shrine;
Ah! Faded goddess, thou wert held divine
When we were young! But now each laurelled head
has fallen, and fallen the ancient glorious line;
the last is gone, since Banville too is dead.
Peace, peace a moment, dolorous Ibsenite!
Pale Tolstoist, moaning from the Euxine shore!
Psychology, to dreamland takes thy flight!
And, fell Heredity; forbear to pour
Drop after drop thy dose of hellebore,
for we look back to night to ruddier wine
and gayer singing than these moans of thine!
Our skies were azure once, our roses red,
our poets once were crowned with eglantine;
the last is gone, since Banville too is dead.
With flutes and lyres and many a lovely rite
through the mad woodland of our youth they bore
Verse, like pure ichor in a chrysolite,
Secret yet splendid, and the world forswore,
for one brief space, the mocking mask it wore.
Then failed, then fell those children of the vine,--
Sons of the sun,--and sank in slow decline;
Pulse after pulse their radiant lives were shed;
To silence we their vocal names consign;
The last is gone, since Banville too is dead.
ENVOY:
Prince-jeweller, whose facet-rhymes combine
all hues that glow, all rays that shift and shine,
Farewell! Thy song is sung, thy splendour fled!
No bards to Aganippe's wave incline;
the last is gone, since Banville too is dead.
Sir Edmund William Gosse
The ballade in English is often used for comic purposes as well as serious meditation, as in Austin Dobson's ballade on that greatest of all bores --the poet. His pattern is another variation--a 9-line stanza rhyming
a
b
a
b
b
c
d
c
D2
"The Ballade of the Bore"
"Garrulus hunc quando consumet cunque."
--Horace Sat. I, ix, 33.
I see him come from far,
And, sick with hopelessness,
Invoke some kindly star, --
I see him come, no less.
Is there no sure recess
where hunted men may lie?
Ye gods, it is too hard!
I feel his glittering eye, --
Defend us from The Bard!
He knows nor let nor bar:
With ever-nearing stress,
Like Juggernaut his car,
I see him onward press;
He waves a huge MS.;
He puts evasion by,
He stands--as one on guard,
And reads--how volubly!--
Defend us from The Bard!
He reads--of Fates that mar,
Of Woes beyond redress,
Of all the Moons that are,
Of Maids that never bless,
(As one, indeed, might guess);
Of Vows, of Hopes too high,
Of Dolours by the yard
That none believe (nor buy),--
Defend us from The Bard!
ENVOY
Prince Phoebus, all must die,
or well- or evil-starred,
Or whole of heart or scarred;
But why in this way--why?
Defend us from The Bard!
Austin Dobson
Norman Rowland Gale's ballade is another comic piece, this time one following the basic ballade pattern exactly:
"The Ballade of the Glutton"
I'm greedy by nature, and often in vain
have lingered too long o'er the succulent hare,
accepting the jelly, ignoring the pain,
Intent on receiving far more than my share.
I worship the plover's egg, tasty and rare,
And idolize fanciful French fricassees;
But what, darling dainties, with you can compare,
Soused salmon and lamb and young ducks and green peas?
I ask for real turtle, again and again--
Observe the Lord Mayor's John Thomases* stare! [Flunkies]
For kitchen-recitals to Susan and Jane,
and powdered impertinence, what do I care?
I sit down to eat, and I vow and declare,
I'd honour a dish were it made of stewed bees,
Though loyal to you, should you chance to be there,
Soused salmon and lamb and young ducks and green peas.
I cherish a chef, be he Grecian or Dane;
I even can relish a collop of bear;
I love ev'ry calf--if it boasts a fine brain--
And melt at a pullet, or even a pair.
Though gold's on the table and stately the fare,
I greet a grand entree with almost a sneeze
If you, dearest dainties, are sweet on the air--
Soused salmon and lamb and young ducks and green peas.
Envoy:
O Redcoats of England, who struggle and dare,
your glory's a morsel no glutton can please;
my yearning is all for a soft-cushioned chair,
Soused salmon and lamb and young ducks and green peas.
Norman Rowland Gale
Finally, as an example of what can be done with the form by a skilled practitioner, here is William Ernest Henley's double ballade:
"Double Ballade on the Nothingness of Things"
[Editor's Note: The Double Ballade normally consists of 6 8-line stanzas. Here, Henley uses an 11-line ababbccdede stanza instead and creates a tour de force of rhyme: 8 "e" rhymes, 12 "a" rhymes, 14 "c" and "d" rhymes, and an incredible 18 "b" rhymes. --Howard]
The big teetotum twirls,
and epochs wax and wane
as chance subsides or swirls;
but of the loss and gain
the sum is always plain.
Read on the mighty pall,
The weed of funeral
That covers praise and blame,
The -isms and the -anities,
Magnificence and shame: --
"O Vanity of Vanities!"
The Fates are subtle girls!
They give us chaff for grain.
And Time, the Thunderer, hurls,
Like bolted death, disdain
At all that heart and brain
Conceive, or great or small,
Upon this earthly ball.
Would you be knight and dame?
Or woo the sweet humanities?
Or illustrate a name?
O Vanity of Vanities!
We sound the sea for pearls,
Or drown them in a drain;
We flute it with the merles,
Or tug and sweat and strain;
We grovel, or we reign;
We saunter, or we brawl;
We search the stars for Fame,
Or sink her subterranities;
The legend's still the same: --
"O Vanity of Vanities!"
Here at the wine one birls,
there some one clanks a chain.
The flag that this man furls
that man to float is fain.
Pleasure gives place to pain:
These in the kennel crawl,
while others take the wall.
She has a glorious aim,
He lives for the inanities.
What come of every claim?
O Vanity of Vanities!
Alike are clods and earls.
For sot, and seer, and swain,
For emperors and for churls,
For antidote and bane,
There is but one refrain:
But one for king and thrall,
For David and for Saul,
For fleet of foot and lame,
For pieties and profanities,
The picture and the frame:--
"O Vanity of Vanities!"
Life is a smoke that curls--
Curls in a flickering skein
that winds and whisks and whirls,
a figment thin and vain,
into the vast Inane.
One end for hut and hall!
One end for cell and stall!
Burned in one common flame
are wisdoms and insanities.
For this alone we came: --
"O Vanity of Vanities!"
Envoy
Prince, pride must have a fall.
What is the worth of all
your state's supreme urbanities?
Bad at the best's the game.
Well might the Sage exclaim: --
"O Vanity of Vanities!"
William Ernest Henley
The Folk Ballad
The anonymous folk ballad was mainly composed to be sung. It was passed along orally from singer to singer, from generation to generation, and from one region to another. During this progression a particular ballad would undergo many changes in both words and tune. The medieval or Elizabethan ballad that appears in print today is probably only one version of many variant forms.
Primarily based on an older legend or romance, this type of ballad is usually a short, simple song that tells a dramatic story through dialogue and action, briefly alluding to what has gone before and devoting little attention to depth of character, setting, or moral commentary. It uses simple language, an economy of words, dramatic contrasts, epithets, set phrases, and frequently a stock refrain. The familiar stanza form is four lines with three or four stresses alternating and the second and fourth lines rhyming.
For example:
It was ín and abóut the Mártinmas time,
when the gréen léaves were a fálling,
That Sír John Gráeme, in the Wést Countrý,
Fell in lóve with Bárbara Állan
“Bonny Barbara Allan”
It was in the 18th century that the term ballad was used in England in its present sense. Scholarly interest in the folk ballad was first aroused by Bishop Percyy's Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), was significantly inspired by Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802). Francis Child's collection, English and Scottish Popular Ballads (5 vol., 1882–98), marked the high point of 19th-century ballad scholarship.
More than 300 English and Scottish folk ballads, dating from the 12th to the 16th century, are present. Although the subject matter varies considerably, five major classes of the ballad can be distinguished—the historical, such as “Otterburn” and “The Bonny Earl o' Moray”; the romantic, such as “Barbara Allan” and “The Douglas Tragedy”; the supernatural, such as “The Wife of Usher's Well”; the nautical, such as “Henry Martin”; and the deeds of folk heroes, such as the Robin Hood cycle.
Ballads, however, cannot be confined to any one period or place; similar subject matter appears in the ballads of other peoples. Indigenous American ballads deal mainly with cowboys, folk heroes such as Casey Jones and Paul Bunyan, the mountain folk of Kentucky and Tennessee, the Southern African American, and famous outlaws, such as Jesse James:
Jésse had a wífe to móurn for his lífe,
Three chíldren, théy were bráve;
But the dírty little cóward that shót Mister Hóward
Has láid Jesse Jámes in his gráve.
“Ballad of Jesse James”
During the mid-20th century in the United States there was a great resurgence of interest in folk music, particularly in ballads. Singers such as Joan Baez and Pete Seeger included ballads like “Bonny Barbara Allan” and “Mary Hamilton” in their concert repertoires; composer-performers such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan wrote their own ballads.
The Literary Ballad
The literary ballad is a narrative poem created by a poet in imitation of the old anonymous folk ballad. Usually the literary ballad is more elaborate and complex; the poet may retain only some of the devices and conventions of the older verse narrative. Literary ballads were quite popular in England during the 19th century Examples of the form are found in Keats's “La Belle Dame sans Merci,” Coleridge's “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” and Oscar Wilde's “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” In music a ballad refers to a simple, often sentimental, song, not usually a folk song.
Ready to write a Ballad? Here is an example. The form is pretty self explanatory in this Ballad and it should give you a good base as well. This is one of my favorite Ballads and I even included some interesting history on it.
Tom Dooley
Lyrics: Traditional
Music: Traditional
This was performed by "Bob Weir and Friends" on 17 Nov 1978 (just Weir, Garcia and Lesh - Mickey Hart joined them on stage after this song)
Chorus
Hang your head, Tom Dooley
Hang your head and cry
Killed poor Laura Foster (note 1)
And you know you're bound to die
You took her on the hillside (note 2)
And begged to be excused
You took her on the hillside
Then hid her clothes and shoes
You dug her grave four feet wide
Dug it three feet deep
Rolled the cold clay over her
And tromped it with your feet
[chorus]
Took her on the hillside
Stabbed with a knife (note 3)
Took her on the hillside
And then you took her life
[chorus]
[chorus]
This time tomorrow morning
Where do you reckon I'll be
Down in some lonesome valley
Just swinging from a white oak tree
You can take down my old violin
And play it all you please
For at this time tomorrow morning
It'll be of no use to me
[chorus]
[chorus]
Notes
(1) in some versions it is "Laurie Foster" not "Laura Foster" - and it's hard to tell which it is that Garcia and Weir sing
(2) other versions have "You left her by the roadside" for the first and third lines of this verse side instead of repeating "You took her on the hillside"
(2) in some versions the line here is "For to be your wife". Garcia mumbles something that definitely sounds as if it ends "... with her knife"
Garcia doesn't sing the following verses from the traditional version:
Trouble, oh it's trouble
A-rollin' through my breast
As long as I'm a-livin', boys
They ain't a-gonna let me rest
I know they're gonna hang me
Tomorrow I'll be dead
Though I never even harmed a hair
On poor little Laurie's head
In this world and one more
Then reckon where I'll be
If it wasn't for Sheriff Grayson
I'd be in Tennessee
The Kingston Trio's version is the best-known and includes only a few verses:
Chorus
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Hang down your head and cry
Hang down your head Tom Dooley
Poor boy you're bound to die
I met her on the mountain
There I took her life
I met her on the mountain
Stabbed her with a knife
[chorus]
This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
If it hadn't of been for Grayson
I'd have been in Tennessee
[chorus]
This time tomorrow
Reckon where I'll be
Down in some lonesome canyon
Hanging from a wide oak tree
[chorus]
History
Tom Dooley is based on a true story. Laura Foster was murdered in 1866 in North Carolina. Local legend tells that both she and Annie Melton were in love with Tom, and further that Sheriff Grayson, the man who took him in custody and also drove the horses from beneath him when he was hanged, was jealous of Tom. Some believe that he either committed the murder or helped Ann Melton who is reputed to have murdered Laura Foster out of jealousy.
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