Structure

(Reade, 2022) (Leed, n.d.)

Stanza and Meter form

Stanza

In poetry, a ballad stanza is a type of a four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, most often found in the folk ballad

Meter

the rhythm of a ballad. It describes where the emphasis is placed – what words are emphasized, and what words aren’t

Ballad Meter

Ballad meter is a type of poetry that consists of four-line stanzas and uses alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter

Iambic Tetrameter

Tetrameter is the term used to describe the number of iambic patterns in one line. Each pattern is called a foot. In iambic tetrameter, each foot is made up of two syllables, and each line contains four feet.

Iambic Trimeter

In iambic trimeter, each foot contains two syllables, and a line is made up of three feet.

The ballad’s 4-3-4-3 line beat in matching quatrains has become the most familiar spoken-word and recorded poetic form of modern times.

Haud your tongue, ye auld fac'd knight,

Some ill death may ye dee!

Father my bairn on whom I will,

I'll father nane on thee.

There are four emphasized words in the first and third lines, and three emphasized words in the second and fourth lines--in short, 4-3-4-3.

The ballad's 4-4-4-4 meter, where all lines have four emphasized words:

I am a man upon the land

I am a silkie on the sea

and when I'm far and far frae land

my home it is in Sule Skerry.

Older ballads tend more towards the 4-4-4-4 meter, while more of the later period ones have the 4-3-4-3 meter.

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Structure

Iambic Tetrameter

Iambic Trimeter