The ballad - Index of

The Ballad
The refrain, moreover, is occasionally elaborated
until it becomes part of the stanzaic
structure ;
thus in the famous ballad of
Edward :
"Why does your brand sae drap wi' bluid,
Edivardy Edward.
Why does your brand sae drap ivi' bluid,
And why sae sad gang ye, O
O I hae killed
my hauke sae guid,
M-ither^ mither^
I hae killed my hauke sae guidy
And I had nae mair but he, O."
Eliminating the italicised lines, which are repeated
on the same principle in every stanza, we
have the common ballad quatrain.
Repetitions of other kinds are also frequent
in popular verse on the one
;
hand, during the
process of tradition, there has been evolved a
stock of ballad-phrases or " common-places "
and nothing
is
more truly popular in any sense
of the word ;
and on the other hand there is the
structural repetition effective enough, as many
poets have found, when used in its simple form
to drop the curtain on the drama but especially
characteristic of ballads in the more elaborate
form to which Professor Gummere has given the
name of " incremental repetition." The nursery
rhyme of The House that Jack Built is a simple
instance of verbal incremental repetition ;
but
the best ballads employ the process
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in their