(I) THE BALLAD ~ Literary Hunt

(I) The Ballad

The literary meaning of the word 'Ballad' is 'a dance-song'. A ballad was a song or a collection of songs which was sung by wondering dingers from village to village to the accompaniment of a harper a fiddle by a strolling singer or band of singers. It was the source of their earning. The ballad generally glorified the brave deeds and heroic exploits of historical or legendary heroes and knights. The ballads were transmitted from generation to generation. Typically, the popular ballad is dramatic and impersonal. The minstrel begins with the climactic episodes, tells the story tersely by means of action and dialogues, and tells it without expressing his personal attitude or feelings. Since the ballads developed at the dawn of civilization their subjects were memorable deeds. Those included fends, thrilling adventures, love affairs, wars, etc. Their tales evoked a feeling of awe, thrill, and suspense.

It has a specific meter and stanza form. The ballads are written in four-line stanzas called Quatrains in iambic meter. The first and third line has four iambic feet and the second and fourth have three iambic feet.

IMPORTANT BALLADS

sn no	Title	Author or Compiler
1	Reliques of Ancient English Poetry	Bishop Percy(Partly Written and Partly Collected)
2	Assassin	James Macpherson
3	(i) Proud Maisie (ii) The lay of the Last Minstrel	Sir Walter Scott
4	Rime of the Ancient Mariner	Coleridge
5	La Belle Dame Sans Merci	Keats
6	John Gilpin	Cowper
7	The Rime of the Ancient Waggoner	William Maginn
8	Ballads and other Poems	Tennyson
9	Ballads and Poems	D.G Rossetti

Some other Ballads are as given below.
their authors or compiler are not known.

(a) Sir Patrick Spens
(b) Robin Hood (Several Volumes)
(c) The Battle of Otterbourne
(d) The Blind Beggar's Daughter
(e) The Spanish Armada
(f) The Babes in the wood
(g) The wife of usher's well
(h) The Twa corbies
(i) The Bailiff's Daughter
(G) The Two Sisters-
(k) The Ship of the Fiend

OBJECTIVE TYPE OF QUESTIONS

1. A ballad is written in:
(a) Iambic feet
(b) Rhyming verse
(c) Iambic meter
(d) Trochaic stanza form

2. The stanza of a ballad has........ lines.
(a) Eight
(b) Four
(c) Six
(d) Two

3. The meaning of 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci is :
(a) A beautiful girl without mercy
(b) A lonely girl with mercy
(c) A tall girl without mercy
(d) A beautiíul girl with mercy

4. Name the writer of the famous ballad
"Lochinvar' :
(a) Tennyson
(b) Bishop Percy
(c) Sir Walter Scott
(d) S.T. Coleridge

5.The Ballad La Belle Dame Sans Merci is
written by :
(a) Tennyson
(b) Cowper
(c)Keats
(d) Walter Scott

6."He prayeth best, who loveth best,
All things, great and small."
In which poem do these lines occur?
(a) Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient
Marines
(b) Keats's La Belle Dame sans Merci
(c) William Maginn's The Rime of the
Ancient Waggoner
(d) Scott's The Lay of the Last Minstrel

7. John Gilpin is written by :
(a) Walter Scott
(b) Cowper
(c) William Maginn
(d) Coleridge

8."Our English archers bent their bows,
Their hearts were good and true,
At the first flight of arrows sent
Full fourscore Scots they slew."
From which ballad have these lines been
quoted?
(a) Robin Hood
(b) The Battle of Otterbourne
(c) Sir Patrick Spens
(d) Chevy Chase

9. Who is the author of The Rime of the Ancient
Waggoner :
(a) D.G. Rossetti
(b) Coleridge
(c) William Maginn
(d) Walter Scott

10. The literal meaning of a ballad is :
(a) A dance song
(b) A rustic song
(c) A love song
(d) A group song

11. The ballad singers were called as :
(a) Musicians
(b) Harpers
(c) Minstrels
(d) Poets

12. A stanza of a ballad is called a :
(a) Feet
(b) Quadrilateral
(c) Quatrain
(d) Couplet

13. Which of the following is the earliest ballad?
(a) Rime of the ancient mariner
(b) Proud Maisie
(c) La Belle Dame Sans Merci
(d) Chevy chase

14.The way was long, the wind was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old;
His withered cheek, and tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day."
These lines have been quoted from The Lay of the Last Minstrel,.........is its author:
(a) Tennyson
(b) Walter Scott
(c) Keats
(d) D.G. Rossetti

15. "I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
With horrid warning gaped wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hillside.
From which ballad have these lines been
quoted?
(a) Keat's La Balle Dame Sans Merci
(b) Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel
(c) Scott's proud Maisie
(d) Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner

(I) THE BALLAD

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