Ballad
A popular narrative
song passed down orally. In the English tradition, it usually follows a form of
rhymed (abcb) quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. Folk (or traditional)
ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with
emphasis on a central dramatic event.
“Annabel Lee”
It was many and
many a year ago,
In
a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden
there lived whom you may know
By
the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden
she lived with no other thought
Than
to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child,
In
this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved
with a love that was more than love—
I
and my Annabel Lee—
With a love
that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted
her and me.
And this was
the reason that, long ago,
In
this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out
of a cloud, chilling
My
beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her
highborn kinsmen came
And
bore her away from me,
To shut her up
in a sepulchre
In
this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not
half so happy in Heaven,
Went
envying her and me—
Yes!—that was
the reason (as all men know,
In
this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind
came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling
and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it
was stronger by far than the love
Of
those who were older than we—
Of
many far wiser than we—
And neither the
angels in Heaven above
Nor
the demons down under the sea
Can ever
dissever my soul from the soul
Of
the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon
never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of
the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars
never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of
the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the
night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of
my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,
In
her sepulchre there by the sea—
In
her tomb by the sounding sea.
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