The basic ballad stanza is made up of four lines. It has an alternating couplet at lines two and four. The lines also alternate between tetrameter and trimeter. This gives the following structure xxxxxxxaxxxxxbxxxxxxxcxxxxxb Example: The Little Boy Lost by William Blake "Father, father where are you going?Oh do not walk so fast!Speak, father, speak … Continue reading Ballad Stanza Notes
Category: 4-Line Forms
Ballad Notes
The long measure ballad is a variant of common measure. It consists of four-line stanzas, each line ideally being iambic tetrameter or eight-syllables in length.
Temptations
Ms Lilly, my dear, give me your hand, let me take you to a sensual promised land. Soft tendrils of evocative silk stroking your face
Ordinary Man
Is it pleasure, regret, anger or madness? No! It is all about power, absolute power, corruption complete. A guy like me with nothing, and no hope of anything in life....
Halloween Children
Form: Ballad Stanzas In October they come to play Yet they are never seen On autumn days in the playground
Silent Mask
Form: Ballad Stanzas Prompt: Taste the rainbow My confused mind hidden by fear With questions never asked Never daring to say the words
Forest Clan
Form: Ballad Stanzas They ask me why I can believe The gods exist today While I count blessings, I receive
Ethereal Attraction
Form: Quatrains Another night alone in our bedroom, memories of you lying ev’rywhere Eyes red with tears, my senses in the gloom
Adieu
Form: Ballad Once it was you who ruled my pen And like a child I obeyed you The words at play within my dreams
The Marriage Portrait
Form: Ballad Portrait of the Artist's Wife, Cunera van der Cock by Frans van Mieris the Elder, 1657/8, oil on vellum inlaid on oak. Currently located in the collection of the National Gallery, London, UK
