Ballad Meter

Type: structure, meter, rhyme, stanzaic. Description: Ballad measure is a four-line stanzaic form usually rhymed abcb and consisting of alternating tetrameter and trimeter lines. Normally it is accentual-syllabic, such as iambic meter, though they can be podic with variable numbers of unaccented syllables. Schema: xX xX xX xa xX xX xb xX xX xX xc xX xX xb Stanza Length: quatrain.
© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Ballad

Type: refrain, structure, meter, rhyme, stanzaic.

Description: Short narrative poem compromising of quatrains. Usually written in ballad meter of alternating iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. The rhyme scheme is usually alternating lines. Ballads have a refrain stanza.

Schema:

xX xX xX xA (Refrain)
xX xX xB
xX xX xX xA
xX xX xB

xX xX xX xc
xX xX xd
xX xX xX xc
xX xX xd

Stanza Length: quatrain.

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Balassi Stanza

Type: structure, rhyme, stanzaic.

Description: A nine-line stanzaic form where the lines are grouped in three-line sets with syllable counts 6, 6, and 7. The first two lines of each set is a couplet. The third, and longer line, carries the main rhyme in the third, sixth and ninth line of the stanza. Created by Balint Balassi.

Schema:

xxxxxb
xxxxxb
xxxxxxA
xxxxxc
xxxxxc
xxxxxxA
xxxxxd
xxxxxd
xxxxxxA

Poem Length: 9 lines

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Balada

Type: structure, meter, refrain, rhyme.

Description: A dance song with an insistent refrain. The refrain is repeated after each stanza. The first line of the refrain is repeated after the first and second line or section of each stanza. The balada is usually three stanzas where the stanzas are separated into three parts, the first two being of identical structure and the third matching the structure of the refrain. The balada was common in Occitan circa 1300CE.

Schema:

RA bRbRa(RA) bRbRa(RA) bRbRa(RA)

where:
R is the first line of the refrain
A is the rest of the refrain
b is the first and second section of the stanza
a is the third section of the stanza.

Poem Length: 3 stanzas

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Bagarthach Verses

Type: structure, rhyme, simple.

Description: Created by Raphael Aloysius Lafferty who used this form for a book where aliens would curse bothersome humans.

Schema:

Rhyme: abab.

Stanza Length: quatrain.

Poem Length: 1 stanza

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Awdl Gywydd

Type: structure, meter, rhyme, stanzaic.

Description: Pronounced ‘owdl gow-widd’. Seven syllable quatrains with end rhymes and couplet binding. Welsh origin.

Schema:

xxxxxxa
xxaxxxb (a can be 3rd or 4th syllable)
xxxxxxc
xxcxxxb (c can be 3rd or 4th syllable)

Mid-line rhymes a and c can be various forms of rhyme but the end of line rhyme b should be perfect rhyme.

Stanza Length: quatrain.

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.

Aubade

Type: subject.

Description: A song or verse about lovers parting at dawn.

© Jem Farmer 2008, all rights reserved.