USAGE: English, Biblical, Biblical Latin, Biblical Greek, Ancient Greek, Greek Mythology
Term: Ballad. Strictly, a ballad is a form of poetry that alternates lines of four and three beats, often in quatrains, rhymed abab, and often telling a story-the anonymous poem 'Sir Patrick Spens' and Wordsworth's A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal demonstrate this well.erm: Ballad. Strictly, a ballad is a form of poetry that alternates lines of four and three beats, often in quatrains, rhymed abab, and often telling a story-the anonymous poem 'Sir Patrick Spens' and Wordsworth's A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal demonstrate this well.
Ballads are generally written in ballad meter, i.e., alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, with the last words of the second and fourth lines rhyming. Other Ballads: A Line Storm Song, Wind and Window Flower.