BALLAD

  समझने के लिये वीडियो जरूर देखें 

DEFINITION

·        Ballad is a simple narrative poem of folk origin, composed in short stanzas and adapted for singing.

·        The term ‘Ballad’ is derived from the word ‘Ballare’ which means ‘to dance’.

·        Ballad is a short story in the form of folk song.

·        It began as an oral crude form rather than a literary form.

·        It was spoken or sung by minstrels (wanderers from one place to another form) from village to village to earn their livelihood and heard by a live audience.

BEGINING

However, the word “ballad” typically refers to the relatively short lyrical poems produced by European poets starting around the 13th century.

·        Ballads become popular in the 15th century.

·        These were sung by wanderers.

·        The writers of the former ballads were unknown.

·        These ballads glorify the great deeds of kings and knights.

·        Earlier they were transferred from one generation to another in oral form.

AFTER 17TH CENTURY

·        Ballads were collected, arranged systematically and published in book form during the 18th and 19th centuries.

·        Bishop Persy collected and published around 3000 ballads in 1765 in ‘Reliques of Ancient of English Poetry’ and save them from extinct.

·        Sir Walter Scott wrote ‘Anthology of medieval Ballads- The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border’,

                                                            समझने के लिये वीडियो जरूर देखें 

                                                             समझने के लिये वीडियो जरूर देखें 
 

CHARACTERISTICS

       i.          Style And Focus

·        The narration of ballads is impersonal - we don’t get any clue as to the personality and nature of the narrator.

·        Ballads have an intense focus on the deeds and acts of the characters.

      ii.          Literary Devices

·        Rhyme is kept simple and predictable, usually monosyllabic rhyme.

·        An important feature of ballads is repeated lines or phrases.

·        'The question and answer format' which is common in many ballads, is another form of parallelism.

    iii.          Meter And Stanza

·        A common form is a quatrain (4-line stanza), rhyming abcb -

·        E.g. (‘Lord Thomas and Fair Annet’) 

“He had a rose into his hand (8 syllables)

He gave it kisses three (6 syllables)

And reaching by the nut-brown bride, (8 syllables)

Laid it on fair Annet’s knee.” (6 syllables)

·        Another common form is a quatrain with rhyming abcb, or rhyming abab, or aabb quatrain.

    iv.          Themes

·        Love, tragic love

·        Revenge

·        Murder,

·        Betrayal

·        Magic heroism, battle, adventure, etc

TYPES OF BALLADS

       i.          Fold Ballad/ Traditional Ballad/ Authentic Ballad:

·        In the British Isles, the folk ballad is medieval in origin; but it flourished into the 16th and 17th centuries.

·        A short narrative song preserved and transmitted orally among illiterate or semi-literate people’.

·        The most famous group of ballads in the British Isles is known as the border ballads because they originated around the English Scottish border.

·        These are the oldest version of ballads.

·        They originated orally.

·        These are the piece of folk art.

·        Their authors are unknown.

·        Examples-The Nut Brown Maid’, Chey-Chase’ and ballads about Robinhood etc.

      ii.          Literary Ballad

·        The most recently written ballad.

·        literary ballads are written by educated poets in imitation of the form and style of the traditional ballad.

·        From the time of Wordsworth on, the ballad became an accepted and reputable part of the genre system of English poetry.

·        In 1798, Wordsworth and Coleridge published a collaborative volume called lyrical ballads.

·        Since that time the ballad genre has been a significant part of the mainstream of English poetry.

·        Examples-  ‘La Belle Dame Sans mercy’ by Keats; ‘Barrack room ballads – by Kipling; ‘Christable and The Ancient mariner’ – by Coleridge.

    iii.          Broadside Ballad

·        A broadside is a large sheet of paper printed on one side only. The broadside ballad refers to ballads which were sold on the streets and at county fairs in Britain from 16-20th centuries.

·        They were sung to well-known tunes and often dealt with current events, issues or scandals.

·        Developed after invention of printing press.

·        Entertainment for urban rather than rural population.

·        Examples- Child Ballad (collection of English and Scottish Ballads) by Francis James child