Theme : English ballads in the 14th and 15th century

The Wife of Usher’s Well
There lived a wife at Usher’s Well,

1. 
   And a wealthy wife was she;
   

She had three stout1 and stalwart sons,
And sent them o’er the sea.
They hadna’ been a week from her,
5. A week but barely ane,2
When word came to the carlin3 wife
That her three sons were gane.4
They hadna’ been a week from her,
10. A week but barely three,
When word came to the carlin wife
That her sons she’d never see.
I wish the “wind may never cease,
15. Nor fashes in the flood,5
Till my three sons come hame to me,
In earthly flesh and blood.”


Folk Ballads
A folk ballad is a popular literary form. It comes from unlettered people rather than from professional minstrels or scholarly poets. That is why the ballad tends to express its meaning in simple language. (But the centuries-old dialect of many folk ballads may seem to readers complex ). The ballad stanza consists of four lines (a quatrain), rhyming abcb, with four accented syllables within the first and third lines and three in the second and fourth lines.
There 'lived a 'wife at 'Usher’s 'Well, a
And a 'wealthy 'was 'she; b
She had 'three 'stout and 'stalwart 'sons, c
And 'sent them 'o’er the 'sea. b
Some folk ballads make use of refrains, repetitions of a line or lines in every stanza without variation. Refrains add emphasis and a note of continuity to the ballads.
As regards to content, the ballads are usually divided into three groups: historical, heroic, and romantic ballads. Historical ballads were based on a historical fact, while heroic ballads were about people who were persecuted by the law or by their own families. Among the most popular ones were those about Robin Hood, who was an outlaw.