Waylaid on the Road to Riches
And What, Precisely, Is Ballad Meter??
Ballad meter refers to a verse form consisting of alternating lines of iambic quatrameter (lines with four stresses or accents) and lines of iambic trimeter (lines with three stresses or accents). The relative shortness of all the lines combined with the sort of see-sawing back and forth between four stresses and three stresses and the forced paused at the end of the trimeter lines leads to a very sing-song effect. This is the kind of verse you use when you want to call attention to the fact that THIS IS VERSE. It also sounds a bit like a nursery rhyme, archaic and simple.
Emily Dickinson was a big ole fan o' ballad meter. Some of her most famous stuff is rendered in this venerable form:
I heard a Fly buzz--when I died--
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air--
Between the Heaves of Storm . . .
I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it's true--
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe . . .
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading--treading--till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through. . .
and so forth . . .
This just in: Be sure to check out Ms. Fran Egler's pithy insights regarding Emily Dickinson's verse in our guestbook!
Enough of this, I cannot write
Of Ballad verse no more.
I must complete this chapter now,
It weighs on me so sore.