About Ballad

A type of poetry that has four-line stanzas and a regular rhythm. Usually the second and fourth lines rhyme. Traditional ballads are narrative poems.

How to use this term

Is the wholly trimeter rhythm of 'The Ride', by Richard Wilbur, enough to stop this poem from being a ballad, even though it meets the other characteristics?

Also known as: Common Measure.

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An example of Ballad

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