Ballads
...are poisoned, my handsome young man. / Oh, yes, I am poisoned; mother, make my bed soon” (21-23). Also, ballads are popular because of their use of common characters. The characters are normal people in normal situations. In “Get up and Bar the Door” there is a great example of common characters observed in the lines “Then up and started out goodwife, / Gied three skips on the floor: / Goodman, you’ve spoken the foremost word” (41-43). This ballad shows the normal house wife and her husband. This makes ballads popular because people can easily relate to the lives of the common characters. Lastly, ballads have always had common themes. One of the commonly used themes is death, murder, and suicide. In “Bonny Barbara Allan” death takes the life of both Barbara Allan and John Graeme as seen in the lines “Since my love died for me today, / I’ll die for him tomorrow” (35-36). Death is expressed in the line “Young man, I think you’re dying” (12) and in the line “And death was with him ...