  Poetry
This week: Lyric voice of the balladeer Edited by: manga_kate
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The poet doesn't invent. He listens.
Jean Cocteau
Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.
Edgar Allan Poe
Greetings! Welcome to this week’s edition of the WDC Poetry Newsletter. I’m honored to once again appear as your guest host.
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Greetings, fellow craftspersons of lyric prose and verse. I'd like to explore today, a pattern of verse whose echoes resound from the past and whose voice rises in the present. More proof that a poem is meant to be read aloud
The Ballad tells a story in verse using a short narrative form, often with a refrain. The first English ballads date back to the Middle Ages, where they were oral, relating folk tales and legends, myth and fantasy, and local items of interest in lyric form. Minstrels, perhaps the original ‘stand-up’ comedians, started writing them down to entertain the nobility, often waxing comedic, with lyrical refrains intended to be sung.
The literary ballad evolved from this oral tradition during the Renaissance, as literacy expanded within the population. Writing it down, the ballad stanza form was memorialized. The form maintained and memorialized much of the oral tradition.
We see ballads written in rhyming stanzas of four lines each, with a refrain either complete or with several key words or a line repeated. The rhyming pattern within a stanza was most likely alternating lines, i.e., a,c,b,c or perhaps a,b,a,c, or a,a,b,b and with the rhyming lines balanced in meter. Variations in the rhyming or meter often denoted evolution of the story’s plot, and the writers used internal rhyming techniques (alliteration (courting kingly kudos) and assonance (awash in allegory)), to add impact and perhaps foreshadow the conclusion to come. Let's take a listen to this ballad of old ~
Mary had a little lamb
Its fleece was white as snow,
And everywhere that Mary went
The lamb was sure to go.
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Yes, this is a ballad Reading aloud, hear the build-up in the first and third lines (tetrameter (4 stressed beats)); and the release in the second and fourth lines (trimester (3 stressed beats)). This stress and release draws the listener in, and any refrain whether complete or partial, focuses, then incites the reader/listener to continue the story. Changes to the rhyme or rhythm pattern draw attention to key elements in the resolution of the story being related in verse. The lyrical ballad was written with the intent that it be sung. Therefore, rhyming (whether exact, eye-rhyme or internal), repetition (recall the use of alliteration, assonance, for example), remained, as has the intent of the ballad - to relate a short story, memorialize an event, in lyric verse.
The ballad continued its evolutionary journey through the 20th century, where it resonated in the lyrics of some musicians/balladeers (Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jim Croce).
In the 21st Century, as the internet provides near-instant access to a world of readers, listeners, and, yes, writers, the ballad form remains a versatile means of poetic expression. Today, any collection of verse with a refrain is by some called a ballad.
Remember, though, that the key elements are the increase and release pattern within a stanza and, perchance, the poem itself as you listen to the sound of your voice, as your worlds resonate lyrically what you see with poet's eyes 
Remember, always, though poetic license be found,
one rule is fixed, read all poetry aloud ^_^
Write On  
Kate
manga_kate
My thanks to the following:
http://www.shadowpoetry.com
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Read and hear these ballads, so versatile in form, style, voice. You will see lyric tales of love, passion, darkness, light, and comedy. And places where your ballad will likewise be welcome Listen, enjoy, and perchance leave a comment or review for the writer of the lyric verse
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Love ballad to myself, created on a dare from the Storymaster.
#943277 by Diane   |
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This item number is not valid.
#2011186 by Not Available. |
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This item number is not valid.
#1966417 by Not Available. |
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Thank you for sharing in this lyric exploration with me.
I wish for you each a Happy Valentine's Day 
Write On 
Kate
manga_kate |
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Poetry: February 10, 2016 Issue [#7473]
