What is Ballad?

Ballad:

A ballad is a type of narrative poem or song that tells a story, often set to music. The form has a long history and can be found in many cultures throughout the world. Ballads often deal with themes of love, loss, and tragedy, and are known for their emotional power and memorable melodies.

What is Dramatic Monologue

Dramatic Monologue:

Dramatic monologue is a kind of poem in which a single character reveals a dramatic situation. He is overheard speaking to a silent listener. Robert Browning perfected this form of poetry. 

 

Characteristics of Dramatic Monologue:

 In its complete form it has the following characteristics:

• A single person, who is not the poet himself, utters the entire poem in a specific situation at a critical moment.

• This person addresses and interacts with one or more other people. But we know of the auditor's presence and what they say and do only from clues in the discourse of the single speaker.

• The monologue is organised in such a way that its focus is on the temperament and character that the dramatic speaker unintentionally reveals in the course of what he says.

Ode

Definition of Ode:

"An ode is a long lyric poem, serious in subject, elevated in style, and elaborate in its stanzaic structure." (Abrams). It is often written to praise someone or something, or to mark an important occasion. Pindar, a Greek poet, developed the form of the ode from the varying stanza pattern of the choral songs in Greek tragedy. His complex stanzas were patterned in sets of three: moving in a dance rhythm to the left, the chorus chanted the strophe; moving to right it chanted the antistrophe; then standing still it chanted the epode.