A French fixed form built from three main stanzas, usually of eight lines each, and a shorter closing envoi of four lines, all of them ending on the same refrain line, and all built on only three or four rhyme sounds repeated throughout the poem. Distinct from the English "ballad," a narrative song form with no fixed envoi or refrain requirement; the ballade is a formally exacting lyric structure that flourished among French court poets.
Facts
Place of OriginFrance, 14th century, flourishing among the poets of the French royal and ducal courts. 1 StructureThree stanzas of eight lines each (ABABBCBC), followed by a four-line envoi (BCBC), every stanza and the envoi ending on the same refrain line. 1 Notable ExampleGuillaume de Machaut and Francois Villon's ballades, including Villon's "Ballade des Dames du Temps Jadis." 1 Connections
Form Of Genre
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Influenced
Source The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Sources
1. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics
Princeton University Press
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