{"id":3523,"date":"2018-02-19T09:00:36","date_gmt":"2018-02-19T09:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/?p=3523"},"modified":"2021-08-11T17:07:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T16:07:05","slug":"how-to-write-a-ballad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/writing\/poetry\/how-to-write-a-ballad\/","title":{"rendered":"How to write a ballad"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3524\" style=\"width: 660px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3524\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3524\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Girl-Sitting-At-The-Table-And-163598558-1024x693.jpg\" alt=\"A woman writing a ballad poem\" width=\"650\" height=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Girl-Sitting-At-The-Table-And-163598558-1024x693.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Girl-Sitting-At-The-Table-And-163598558-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Girl-Sitting-At-The-Table-And-163598558-768x520.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Girl-Sitting-At-The-Table-And-163598558-150x102.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-Girl-Sitting-At-The-Table-And-163598558.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3524\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Odishev\/BigStock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Ballads are a narrative written in a poetic form. While they\u2019re long, they are not hard to write, and can be real fun to write, too. With that in mind, I have summarised some of the key characteristics of a ballad below, so you can have a go at writing some yourself.<\/p>\n<p>A common misconception is that the theme of a ballad must be love. True, there are many ballads that are romantic, but this doesn\u2019t mean they all have to be. In fact, you can write your ballad on any subject you choose.<\/p>\n<h1>Key steps to writing a ballad<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li>Start out by making notes on the tale you want to tell<\/li>\n<li>Once you\u2019ve written the story out, cut it down in length, removing all unnecessary words and sentences<\/li>\n<li>Remove anything that isn\u2019t an action or something that drives an action<\/li>\n<li>Now its time to reform your sentences. Listen for a beat, and form ballad stanzas using rhythm and rhyme<\/li>\n<li>Ensure your opening stanza sets the story and also the mood of the piece<\/li>\n<li>Add intrigue by keeping the first couple of stanzas detailed yet open to various avenues down which the story could travel<\/li>\n<li>Use the final quatrain to conclude the story, either using the same rhyme scheme or going off-beat<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Things to remember when writing a ballad<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Use lots of imagery in your ballad in a detached manner to help the reader picture the story<\/li>\n<li>Whether a ballad is or isn\u2019t going to be put to music, they always have a musical feel to them<\/li>\n<li>The rhyme scheme for a ballad is often <em>abcb<\/em> or <em>abab<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Ballads tend to be written in stanzas of 4 or 8 lines, but it is OK to deviate from this<\/li>\n<li>You may include a repetitive verse (or chorus, if the ballad is to be sung) between your stanzas<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Below is an extract from a very long and popular ballad, which was in\u00a0<i>Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (<\/i>1872) and also featured in the original Disney film adaptation of Alice in Wonderland:<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3530\" style=\"width: 910px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3530\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3530\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-184268428.jpg\" alt=\"Alice in Wonderland.\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-184268428.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-184268428-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-184268428-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.thepencompany.live\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bigstock-184268428-150x100.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3530\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alice in Wonderland. Image: Svetlana Smirnova\/BigStock.com<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em>The Walrus and the Carpenter<\/em> \u2013 Lewis Carroll<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The sun was shining on the sea,<\/p>\n<p>Shining with all his might:<\/p>\n<p>He did his very best to make<\/p>\n<p>The billows smooth and bright \u2014<\/p>\n<p>And this was odd, because it was<\/p>\n<p>The middle of the night.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The moon was shining sulkily,<\/p>\n<p>Because she thought the sun<\/p>\n<p>Had got no business to be there<\/p>\n<p>After the day was done \u2014<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s very rude of him,&#8221; she said,<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To come and spoil the fun.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The sea was wet as wet could be,<\/p>\n<p>The sands were dry as dry.<\/p>\n<p>You could not see a cloud, because<\/p>\n<p>No cloud was in the sky:<\/p>\n<p>No birds were flying overhead \u2014<\/p>\n<p>There were no birds to fly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Below is an excerpt from the <em>Ballad of Birmingham<\/em> by Dudley Randall. This ballad is based on the bombing of an Alabama church in 1963, in which four girls died.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>For when she heard the explosion,<\/p>\n<p>Her eyes grew wet and wild.<\/p>\n<p>She raced through the streets of Birmingham<\/p>\n<p>Calling for her child.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>She clawed through bits of glass and brick,<\/p>\n<p>Then lifted out a shoe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;O, here&#8217;s the shoe my baby wore,<\/p>\n<p>But, baby, where are you?&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Just from these two examples, you can see how varied ballads can be in both structure and topic. Have you written a ballad? Share it with us in the comments!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ballads are a narrative written in a poetic form. While they\u2019re long, they are not hard to write, and can be real fun to write, too. With that in mind, I have summarised some of the key characteristics of a ballad below, so you can have a go at writing some yourself. A common misconception&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[285],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.7.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to write a ballad - The Pen Company Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Have you always wanted to write a ballad poem, but not known where to start? 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