Types of Ballads:
1- Folk Ballad:
The folk ballad is usually anonymous and the presentation impersonal. It is orally transmitted and meant to be sung. It is also a popular form.
2- Literary Ballad:
The literary ballad, unlike the folk ballad, is a sophisticated rather than a popular form. Unlike the anonymous, folk ballad, the literary ballad is a written composition by a single poet and it is meant to be read.
Characteristics of a Ballad:
• It is a relatively short narrative poem.
• It has a simple and dramatic action.
• The ballads tell of love, death, the supernatural, a historical event, or a combination of these.
• It has a refrain.
• Ballads often open abruptly.
• It uses concise dialogue.
• The ballad stanza is a quatrain in which the second and the fourth lines rhyme while the first and the third lines do not (abcb).