For example, you may write a ballad about a ghost that haunts a member of your family or you may write about the time you snuck out to meet someone when you were a teen.
For example, you may find a story about a young woman on trial for killing her father in self-defense. Or perhaps you find a news story on a refugee in refugee camp trying to make a better life for themselves.
“The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats “Ballad in A” by Cathy Park Hong “Maude Claire” by Christina Rossetti “Ballad of the Moon Moon” by Federico Garcia Lorca “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” by Bob Dylan
You can also try writing eight-line stanzas if you’d prefer and create your own rhyme scheme for the ballad. Modern ballads often have longer stanzas and a more loose rhyme scheme.
For example, in Bob Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” the first line introduces the two main characters in the story: “William Zanzinger killed poor Hattie Carroll. ”[5] X Research source In John Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” the first line addresses the main character of the story with a question: “O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms…”. [6] X Research source
For example, in Bob Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” there are two main characters, William Zanzinger and Hattie Carroll. Minor characters like a policemen and a judge are also mentioned. In John Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” there are two main characters, the knight-in-arms and the belle dame, or the woman.
For example, in Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the chorus is a variation on the line “The bright-eyed Mariner. ”[9] X Research source In Bob Dylan’s “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,” the chorus appears at the end of each stanza and is several lines long: “But you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears/Take the rag away from your face/Now ain’t the time for your tears. ”
For example, in Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the speaker repeats words like “eye” and “Mariner” in the ballad: “He hold him with his glittering eye-/The Wedding-Guest stood still,/And listens like a three years’ child:/The Mariner hath his will. ”
For example, in Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” the Mariner tells a story of being at sea to the wedding guests a few stanzas into the ballad: “The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared/Merrily did we drop/Below the kirk, below the hill,/Below the lighthouse top. ”
For example, in John Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” the climax comes in the tenth stanza when the knight-in-arms realizes he is being entrapped by the belle dame: “I saw pale kings and princes too,/Pale warriors, death-pale were they all:/They cried- ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci/Thee hath in thrall!’”
For example, in John Keats’ “La Belle Dame Sans Merci,” the ballad ends with the knight-in-arms responding to the question posed to him in the first stanza after revealing he woke from the spell of the belle dame, though he now lives alone in a lifeless world: “And this is why I sojourn here,/Alone and palely loitering,/Though the sedge is withered from the lake,/And no birds sing. ”
You should also read the ballad out loud to catch any spelling, grammar, or punctuation errors.
Be open to constructive feedback from others as it will only improve your ballad.
You can also try using string instruments like a cello, a harp, or a violin to accompany the ballad.
