Intro to Ballads

Ballads are narrative songs that are meant to be sung.

• True
• False

A refrain is

• lines repeated in a song or ballad
• when someone wants to be violent but follows the rules
• sounds repeated in a song
• when someone wants to tell a mean person bad things but stops

A ballad is organized into stanzas called

• couplets
• iambic pentameter
• quatrains
• tetrameter

The rhyme scheme is usually ______

• the first and third lines of each stanza
• the second and fourth lines of each stanza
• there is no specific rhyme scheme

All of the following are themes of ballads EXCEPT

• revenge

• unrequited love

• living happily ever after

• jealous sweethearts

In "Barbara Allen," John Graeme is sick because

• Barbara Allen rejected him
• he attended a drinking party
• Barbara Allen refused to come to him
• his messenger reached Barbara Allen too late

Barbara Allen snubs John Graeme because he

• loved someone else
• failed to toast her
• sent his man for her instead of coming himself
• went to a drinking party

What does Barbara Allen feel when she hears the death bells ringing for John? 

• sorrow and guilt
• indifferent to his suffereing
• wishes he had never lived
• curious as to who her next boyfriend will be

In "Barbara Allen," What does the phrase "make my bed soft and narrow" mean? 

• she is going to die
• she is really tired from her walk and needs a long nap 
• She will lose weight because she is so sad about John dying

What is the "paction" (pact) that the husband and wife make in "Get Up and Bar the Door"? 

• If robbers appear, it will be too dangerous to get up and shut the door
• THe first person to speak has to get up and shut the door
• The wife tells the husband she will shut the door when she's finished cleaning the kitchen