Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for Ballad (-s, -'s)
ballad (-s, -'s), n. [OFr 'dancing song'.] (webplay: sing, solemn, tune).
- Bird song; tonal message; pattern of sound.
- Song; strain; lyric; popular tune; lighthearted melody.
- Phrase. “Border Ballad”: riding ballad; poem from the Borders area of Scotland and England; anthem telling brave deeds; text commemorating a raid at the Border; battle poem by Sir Walter Scott recounting combat between the English and the Scots armies; [fig.] bard's song; [see border, adj.]
- Music; lyrical poetry; [phrase “Of Ballads and of Bards”]: of poems and of poets; from the ancient tradition of memorializing the dead in oral and written compositions.
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