The ballad stanza has formed the basis of hundreds of folk songs, not to mention many Emily Dickinson poems. ● Create an original poem that uses the ballad stanza form and is at least four stanzas long (16 lines in total). 


The ballad stanza has formed the basis of hundreds of folk songs, not to mention many Emily Dickinson poems.
In the folk song tradition, the ballad is used to tell a story - and often a dramatic one. Love is usually involved and things...do not always end well. Emily Dickinson's use of the form is harder to categorize, but her poems are readily accessible on the web and you can see for yourself.
The ballad stanza is discussed in "The Rules for the Dance," on pages 32 & 51-52, and many examples can be found on the internet. It is pretty straightforward and once you hear it, you'll recognize it.
The nutshell version of the ballad stanza format is that each stanza has four lines and goes like this:
Iambic tetrameter (ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM) Iambic trimeter (ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM). Iambic tetrameter (ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM) Iambic trimeter (ta-DUM, ta-DUM, ta-DUM).
Can you "hear" it?
Note also that lines 2 and 4 of each stanza rhyme.
*
Here's an example of a ballad stanza:
There lived a wife at Usher's well,
A wealthy wife was she;
She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And sent them o'er the sea.
*
Here's another example:
I died for Beauty - but was scarce
Adjusted in the Tomb
When One who died for Truth was lain in the adjoining Room--
(That's Dickinson.)
*
Assignment:
● Create an original poem that uses the ballad stanza form and is at least four stanzas long (16 lines in total).