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Ballads

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Submitted By bertaerivez2015
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Ballads are poems, usually expressed through musical stanzas that tell a story. Readers and listeners from children to adults, all socioeconomic classes and education levels enjoy ballads from the Middle Ages to the present day. Ballads tell stories of a time in which the composer lived. They may be stories about families, fisherman, poor-men, love, heroes, and working classes. Some are funny and some are satirical. The poems or stories are not sophisticated; rather they draw on emotion. People are drawn to folklore and/or a belief in the supernatural. They are moved by the tragedy of loved ones, stirred by acts of bravery, raged by acts of violence, comforted by justice that prevails and humored by good-nature squabbles and quick whit. Ballads serve to relay stories especially where the audience is illiterate. The traditional, classical or popular (meaning of the people) ballad has been seen as originating with the wandering minstrels of late medieval Europe. From the end of the fifteenth century we have printed ballads that suggest a rich tradition of popular music. We know from a reference in William Langland's Piers Plowman, that ballads about Robin Hood were being sung from at least the late fourteenth century and the oldest detailed material we have is Wynkyn de Worde's collection of Robin Hood ballads printed about 1495.

Work Cited
"Poetry through the Ages." Ballad Background : Poetry through the Ages. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Oct. 2014. <http://www.webexhibits.org/poetry/explore_famous_ballad_background.html>.

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