To this day, ballads are still enjoyed by some individual although, many generations ago they were at the very heart of amusement. They were passed on orally, centring interesting subjects such as tragic love. Typically, ballads are fairly simple, they do no tend to focus on characterization, they have a rapid dialogue, they are usually in the form of quatrains, and rhyming in abcb.
The poem "Bonny Barbara Allan" is a typical ballad since it follows the norm by applying four major elements; it is written in quatrains, has an abcb rhyming scheme pattern, rapid dialogues, and a lack of characterization.
Throughout the poem, some words' importance are emphasized by stresses such as in this stanza "slowly, slowly raise she up" gives us the impression that even as we read, it becomes slower and slower. Furthermore, we can identify easily the tragic love present which is again another typical element of ballads.
We can notice this element especially in these two particular quatrain:
"O it's I'm sick, and very, very sick,
And 'tis a' for Barbara Allan:"
"O the better for me ye's never be,
Tho you heart's blood were a spilling. (Line 13-16)
"O dinna ye mind, you man," said she,
"When ye was in the tavern a drinking,
That ye made the healths gae round and round,
And slighted Barbara Allan?" (Line 17-20)
In her stubbornness, Barbara Allan refuses to forgive Sir John Graeme for not toasting to her health even knowing he was ill. She left him to die without complete peace, she held this grudge against him until he passed away. Despite the grudge she held, her love was genuine and consequently chose to die for John. The action of dying for him is not written word for word although, we are not left...
Barbara Allan
Barbara Allan (or Allen) is one of the most beloved of all ballads and there are several variations on the wording. It has been set to music and even featured in films. In fact, it was the haunting parlor melody which was sung near the end of the 1951 version of "A Christmas Carol" in which Alistair Sim played Scrooge. The sad ballad has given rise to the myth that out of the lovers' graves sprung a red rose and briar which became intertwined forever.
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