Well, I figure I'd throw in something a little different. To keep the clan fresh and new. What I want from the members, is a ballad (or the part from the ballad you loved most) that you've found and read. I want you to interpret that ballad and tell me what you think it means. And then write one or more
quatrains that show that feeling.
Now, this quatrain(s) will be different than
practice.1-Ballad Poetry. It doesnt have to tell a story. But you still have to keep the format.
This workout is meant to access your interpreting skills and to put your newly found literary device to work. So, shall we begin?
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The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
Quote:
He did not wear his scarlet coat,
For blood and wine are red,
And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead,
The poor dead woman whom he loved,
And murdered in her bed.
He walked amongst the Trial Men
In a suit of shabby gray;
A cricket cap was on his head,
And his step seemed light and gay;
But I never saw a man who looked
So wistfully at the day.
I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that went
With sails of silver by.
I walked, with other souls in pain,
Within another ring,
And was wondering if the man had done
A great or little thing,
When a voice behind me whispered low,
"That fellow's got to swing."
Dear Christ! the very prison walls
Suddenly seemed to reel,
And the sky above my head became
Like a casque of scorching steel;
And, though I was a soul in pain,
My pain I could not feel.
I only knew what haunted thought
Quickened his step, and why
He looked upon the garish day
With such a wistful eye;
The man had killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die.
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As you can see, this ballad is about a man who comitted murder. And while he is in jail? He was constantly remembering what he had before, that which he took. I dont have a ballad response yet. I plan on having one soon.