A ballad is indeed a type of verse that is usually put to music and tells a storey. Ballads legend are descended out from mediaeval French balladée or ballade, which have been original “dance songs.” From the late Middle Ages through the nineteenth century, ballads were indeed a common feature of popular poetry and music in Britain and Ireland. They became popular in Europe, as well as Australia, North Africa, North America, as well as South America. Ballads typically have 13 lines and an ABABBCBC structure, featuring couplets (two lines) of rhymed verse with 14 consonants each. ABAB or ABCB repeated in alternating eight as well as six-syllable lines are yet another popular variant.
Many ballads were written on single sheets then sold as broadsides. From the 18th century forward, poets, as well as musicians, frequently employed the genre to create lyrical ballads. The term became associated with the concept of a stylized storytelling song or poem in the late 19th century, and it is used for any love song, especially the sentimental ballad of pop or rock music. However, the term is also linked with the notion of a slow form of popular love song and has been used as a title for other media including a movie.
The ballad gets its name from mediaeval Scottish dance ballads called “ballares” (L: ballare, to dance), from which the word “ballet” is derived, as does the French ballade. Their topic and role as more than just a narrative song may derive from Scandinavian and Germanic storytelling traditions, as seen by works like Beowulf. They are primarily musically influenced by that of the Minnesang tradition’s Minnelieder. “Judas” in a 13th-century manuscript is the earliest example of such a recognised ballad in style in England.
Ballads were originally written in couplets with refrains in alternating lines to accompany dances. The dancers might have sung these refrains in sync with the dance. Ballad metre is composed of alternating lines of iambic (an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable) tetrameter (eight syllables) and iambic trimeter (six syllables).
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