Ballads And Folk Songs

I enjoy traditional folk songs, set as ballads. Those tales..true stories from beginning to end and most often with a moral. Often tragic, adventurous, depicting love or lost love, heartbreak, emotions. The whole gambit of a good story . Singing ballads was a means of spreading news of real life events.

I've never written a ballad myself (that's something to try). But I recall using "The Ballad of Jesse James" in an exercise I had to do for a postal course I did on Teaching English as a second language.

The most memorable of the ballads I've read is " Sir Patrick Spens" a Scottish ballad with no known author....the last line being..

      Half 'oor, half 'oor
      To Aberdour.
      'Tis fifty fathoms deep,
      And there lies good Sir Patrick Spens
      With the Scots lords at his feet.

It's a great ballad and a great story...all true.     I'll leave you to look it up and enjoy.


Thanks for reading my short contribution this week...Kath