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.
I learned from Achewood that since this poem is in ballad meter, it can be sung to the tune of Gilligan's Island. Since then, try as I might, I haven't ONCE been able to read it normally. â xkcd, . The Carriage . The common meter, or ballad meter, is a poetic rhythm which is, naturally, very common. For the metrically inclined, it consists of alternating lines of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter (although, especially where hymns are concerned, iambic is not an absolute requirement).