Ballad

Ballad: A narrative poem, often in quatrains with a strong rhythm, that tells a dramatic story.

The ballad's plain quatrains and driving rhythm exist to carry story; writers reach for it when they want a poem to move like a folk tale.

Ballad examples

• "I met a lady in the meads, / Full beautiful, a faery's child;"

  — La Belle Dame sans Merci, John Keats

• "Water, water, every where, / And all the boards did shrink;"

  — The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

• "It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea,"

  — Annabel Lee, Edgar Allan Poe

• "O my Luve is like a red, red rose / That's newly sprung in June;"

  — A Red, Red Rose, Robert Burns

• "He did not wear his scarlet coat, / For blood and wine are red,"

  — The Ballad of Reading Gaol, Oscar Wilde

• "The old priest Peter Gilligan / Was weary night and day;"

  — The Ballad of Father Gilligan, W. B. Yeats

Want a full walkthrough? Read our long-form guide: Ballad examples, explained.

Try it on your own writing: Meter Checker - scan your own lines

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