Ballad
A narrative poem in regular stanzas (typically quatrains) with consistent rhyme scheme and metre, originally intended to be sung. Ballads typically tell stories of love, betrayal, death, or adventure in a direct, dramatic manner.
Real World
Keats's 'La Belle Dame sans Merci' uses the traditional ballad quatrain and refrain structure to tell a tale of a knight seduced and abandoned by a supernatural woman — the folk ballad form lends the poem an ancient, fatalistic quality that heightens its sense of doom.
Exam Focus
Comment on the structural features of ballad form (quatrain, refrain, metre) and explain how they create specific effects — do not simply identify them.
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