See also poetry, verse A ballad is a long poem or song telling a story. Traditionally, ballads were narrative poems sung to a simple musical accompaniment, passed down through the generations and adapted and changed by different singers. The old...

A ballad is a narrative poem, usually set to music; thus, it often is a story told in a song. Any story form may be told as a ballad, such as historical accounts or fairy tales in verse form. It usually has foreshortened, alternating four-stress lines...