The ballad as a genre of literature appeared several centuries ago. The word “ballad” itself comes from the Latin language and has a musical meaning, translated as dance or dance song. In the Middle Ages in France, poetic works that had a deep meaning began to be called a ballad. These verses describe life principles heroic people, everyday problems, human experiences and feelings. Often, such songs praise the strength of spirit, describe some historical events, and very often using mythical and magical plots.
Over time, the ballad has changed a lot; not only the semantic plot has changed, but also the technique of writing the verse. Now it is no longer a song, but small fantastic, historical or heroic poetic works. Currently, the ballad has acquired a serious instructive meaning. They represent various conflicts between people - parents and children, between lovers or relationships between people on other levels.
Let's look at several famous Russian ballads. And let's start with our beloved A.S. Pushkin and his works “Song of the Prophetic Oleg”. The essay talks about the Grand Duke Oleg, about his numerous victories over his enemies, but death is prepared for him from his faithful friend - a horse, as a sorcerer who once met predicted to the prince. Fearing the prophecy, Oleg released his horse into the field and ordered him to be looked after. A few years later I decided to look at my faithful steed, but I saw only horse bones. A poisonous snake crawled out of the skull, bit the prince and he died. The question remains open: would the snake have bitten him if Oleg had not listened to the old man and renounced his friend?
Ballad V.A. Zhukovsky’s “Svetlana” teaches readers patience, faith in love and the future. Svetlana spent a whole year waiting for her lover, she missed him and was sad. On winter days, when everyone around was wondering about her betrothed, Svetlana lit a candle at the mirror at midnight to see her only and desired one. But she had a terrible dream, as if her beloved had died, but it was just a dream and the next day Svetlana’s fiancé came and dispelled all negative thoughts.
The work “Ilya Muromets” by A.N. Tolstoy is imbued with a desire for freedom, a desire for the exploits of the epic hero Ilya. He does not like to sit in the cramped walls of the princely chambers; he strives to escape from there into the great expanses of the fields, which he talks about throughout the entire narrative.
Ballad in literature definition 5th grade
The ballad belongs to the lyrical, epic, romantic and mystical poetic genres of literature. Appeared as a folk song or dance in England and Europe during the Middle Ages. Usually, a ballad talks about the main character and his worldview, about the events that happen to the main character, about his premonitions and experiences. The ballad seems to sing about the state of a person’s soul, his internal struggle between good and evil. A ballad can tell us about a historical figure, about some kind of love, about something magical and incomprehensible.
Previously, the ballad consisted of only three stanzas, each of which included no more than 8 lines. Thus, in 24 lines the essence of the work was revealed, the last line of every 8 lines was repeated and ended with the same rhyme. This gave the ballad a similarity to the songs. In Russia, the ballad appeared relatively late - its founder was V. Zhukovsky at the beginning of the 19th century. In 1808, he wrote “Lyudmila,” a mystical, strange, but alluring ballad. Zhukovsky's contemporaries were engrossed in his new work, which was classified as romanticism. Zhukovsky devotes 25 years of his life to this genre and creates 36 ballads.
Even though most the ballads were translations and did not originally belong to Russian literature; Zhukovsky’s new ballads carried exclusively their own, unlike anything else, energy. He gave European medieval heroes the features of a Russian person, described the traditions of Russian life, introduced folk beliefs and signs into his works so that each of his works became understandable and at the same time completely new.
In addition to Zhukovsky, such famous poets as A. Pushkin and M. Lermontov wrote ballads, and besides them, lesser-known authors like P. Katenin, who tried to contrast his works with Zhukovsky’s ballads. Over time, the strict structure of the ballad lost its significance and they began to be written in free poetic form. But the main and distinctive feature of the ballad remains - its tragedy, its predestination. It's a premonition like myself main character both the work and the reader - something will happen to him, and nothing can stop what promises to happen.
A ballad is a genre of poetry that carries with it not only some interesting story, but also her hero with all his experiences, tossings, and premonitions. Usually the hero in ballads is contrasted with society and his environment, describing him as an extraordinary person, special, someone who may not correspond to the ideas of his time.
5th grade, 7th grade. Definition What is a ballad in literature.
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This term has such a long history that it is unlikely that it will be possible to succinctly and simply answer the question of what a ballad is in literature. However, there are a few key points that should certainly come to mind if you happen to encounter something similar on the screen or in a book. Something that will help you immediately recognize the genre. Therefore, let us first give a general definition of a ballad.
What is it?
A ballad is a work written in a special poetic (sometimes text-musical) form, telling about an event with lyrical, dramatic, and later romantic elements.
Historians found the earliest ballads in the south of France (Provence), in manuscripts of the 13th century.
What a ballad is in literature was easiest to understand at that time. Otherwise, it was also called a “dance” (round dance) song.
Their performers were trouvères and troubadours - traveling singers, who were often accompanied by jugglers who performed with them and often served them. Quite a lot of names of medieval troubadours are known today, among them there were representatives of different classes: knights, children of the poor and aristocrats.
Genre and development of form
What is a classic French ballad in literature? Formally, it consisted of 28 lines (verses), had 4 stanzas: of which 3 stanzas were 8 lines each and the last stanza - the so-called “premise” - had 4 lines. The final one served as an appeal to the person to whom the entire work was dedicated.
As with many song forms, the refrain was important to the French ballad. It was contained in every stanza, including the premise. These features helped shape the definition of the 15th-century French ballad.
"Provençal" works did not have a clear plot. In essence, it was a lyrical poem about love, which was most often sung, being built according to a certain canon.
The ballad also penetrated into Italy. There they called her “ballata”. The difference was that the “premise” was the beginning. However, the Italians did not particularly care about strict compliance with the canons of form and the refrain. They understood very loosely what a ballad is in literature. “Ballatas” are typical for the love lyrics of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio.
An English ballad, unlike either French or Italian. It was a lyric-epic narrative and told about a legend or historical event. As a rule, it consisted of quatrains without strictly observing the number of lines and stanzas.
TO XVIII century the plotless lyrical ballad as a genre finally disappears. It is replaced by a poetic story about a terrible or sad event of a romantic nature.
Ballad themes
Thematically, a French song is a composition about love in poetic or musical-poetic form. The master of medieval poets, Guillaume de Machaut (XIV century, France), is considered an outstanding master in the canonical definition of the ballad and its composition.
Francois Villon, a poet of the 15th century, significantly expanded the topic. The themes of his ballads are very varied and not at all courtly. Here, judge only by their names: “Ballad of the Hanged”, “Ballad of Opposites” (“I’m dying of thirst over the stream, I laugh through my tears and toil, playing ...”), “Ballad of truths in reverse”, “Ballad of good advice”, “Old French ballad" (“Where are the holy apostles with amber crucifixes?”), “Ballad-Prayer”, etc.
Bards performing old English and Scottish songs folk songs, they sang mostly about the exploits and feasts of knights and a variety of heroes - from Odin to Robin Hood and King Edward IV.
Some ballads could even be based on very real historical events. Here, for example, is the work “On the Battle of Durham.” She talks about how King David of Scotland, in the absence English king Edward, who went to fight in France, decided to capture England. Historically, this legend refers listeners to a specific historical battle in 1346 in which the Scots were defeated.
Western medieval chant
Starting from the 17th century, poets began to quite actively use the ballad genre, which could not but leave an imprint on both the theme and the style of their writing and construction. However, as before, the song told about events that were sometimes humorous, but most often of a dramatic and adventurous nature.
Understanding what a ballad is in literature is facilitated by reading the works of the 18th century Scottish poet Robert Burns. Based on ancient legends and songs, he created many of them. For example, the ballads “John Barleycorn”, “Once Lived in Aberdeen”, “The Ballad of the Miller and His Wife”, “Findlay”, etc. Just don’t look for them to follow the French canons.
Ballads were written by La Fontaine, Walter Scott, Robert Southey, Thomas Campbell, Hugo, and Stevenson. This genre later had a great influence on German romantic literature. Moreover, in Germany, the word “ballad” was assigned the meaning of a poetic composition written “based on English folk songs.”
In Germany, the genre came into fashion at the end of the 18th century, which helped define it as a romantic work. The plots were typical for loving singers.
For example, the basis of Gottfried Burger's famous ballad "Lenora" is an old legend about a dead groom returning from the war to his bride. He calls her to go get married, she mounts his horse, and he brings her to the cemetery, to the dug up grave. This ballad, which became a model for romantics, had a great influence, in particular, on the famous Russian poet of the 19th century Vasily Zhukovsky, who not only translated it, but also freely rearranged it in two of his own works - “Svetlana” and “Lyudmila”.
Such poets as Alexander Pushkin, Edgar Allan Poe, and Adam Mickiewicz also turned to “Lenora” (the heroine’s name became a household name).
Romantics were especially attracted to elements of myths and fairy tales in ballads, which corresponded to the romantic desire for the mysterious and enigmatic, going beyond the boundaries of everyday life.
Ballad in Russian literature
The genre appeared not without the influence of German romanticism at the beginning of the 19th century. Zhukovsky, already mentioned above, whom his contemporaries called a “ballad writer,” worked on translations of works by G. Burger, F. Schiller, J. V. Goethe, L. Uland and other authors.
A. Pushkin’s poems “Song of the Prophetic Oleg”, “Demons”, “Drowned Man” were written in the ballad style. M. Lermontov did not pass over with his work “Airship”. Ya. Polonsky also has ballads: “The Sun and the Moon”, “Forest”.
However, in Russian literature, songs of the French type were written by poets of the Silver Age (I. Severyanin, V. Bryusov, N. Gumilyov, V. Shershenevich), when there was great interest in “exotic” poetic forms.
Read, for example, the “premise” with a refrain - the last stanza from N. Gumilyov’s “Ballad”:
I’ll give this song to you, friend.
I have always believed in your footsteps,
When you led, tender and punishing,
You knew everything, you knew that we too
The radiance of pink paradise will shine!
Popular in Soviet literature, during the Great Patriotic War, the so-called political ballad, which had a tragic connotation, was used. She received a clear, verified plot and rhythm.
See, for example, “The Ballad of Nails” by N. Tikhonov, “The Ballad of a Boy” by A. Zharov, “The Ballad of the Order” by A. Bezymensky, etc.
Conclusion
So, in order to understand what a ballad is in literature, it is necessary to understand that one of its main genre features is a plot story about an event. Not necessarily real.
The event, however, could only be outlined schematically. It served to express the main idea of the work, lyrical or philosophical subtext. The number of characters is insignificant and most often minimal, for example two. In this case, the ballad takes on the form of a roll call dialogue.
Such are the poems “Nancy and Wilsey” by Burns and “Borodino” by Lermontov. Zhukovsky’s works are endowed with lyrical meaning and expression, Pushkin’s “Song of the Prophetic Oleg” with philosophical meaning, and Lermontov’s “Borodino” with socio-psychological meaning.
BALLAD, -y, w. 1. A lyrical or lyric-epic poem of a special form on a historical, usually legendary, theme. 2. A solo musical work of a narrative or heroic-epic nature. || adj. ballad, -aya, -oe.
View value BALLAD in other dictionaries
Ballad- ballad lyrical poetic narrative based on legend. Balladic, pertaining to a ballad; balladeer m. writer of ballads that were sung for example. in Scotland.........
Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
Ballad- ballads, w. (Italian: ballata). 1. A poem with a narrative plot on a legendary or fairy-tale theme (lit.). 2. A poem of three couplets of eight lines and a fourth........
Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Ballad J.— 1. The genre of lyric poetry with a narrative plot on a legendary, historical, fairy-tale or everyday theme. 2. A separate work of this genre. 3. Vocal or......
Explanatory Dictionary by Efremova
Ballad- -s; and. [French ballade].
1. The genre of lyric poetry with a narrative plot on a legendary, historical, fairy-tale or everyday theme; work in this genre.
2. Vocal........
Kuznetsov's Explanatory Dictionary
Ballad- (French ballade - from late Latin ballo - dancing), in French literature of the 14th-15th centuries. lyric genre of solid form (F. Villon). Lyroepic genre of English folk poetry and similar......
Large encyclopedic dictionary
Ballad- (French ballade, from Latin ballo, I dance), a folklore genre among the peoples of Europe, originally a round dance song with a refrain (among the Romance peoples) or a lyric epic song with a choral......
Historical Dictionary
Ballad— You’ve probably read this poem by Lermontov: Along the blue waves of the ocean, Only the stars will sparkle in the sky, A lonely ship rushes, It rushes with all sails. Don't bend.......
Musical dictionary
In this article we will talk about such a literary genre as the ballad. What is a ballad? This is a literary work, written in the form of poetry or prose, which always has a clearly defined plot. Most often, ballads have a historical connotation and in them you can learn about certain historical or mythical characters. Sometimes ballads are written to be sung in theatrical productions. People fell in love with this genre, first of all, because of the interesting plot, which always has a certain intrigue.
When creating a ballad, the author is guided either by a historical event that inspires him or by folklore. This genre rarely features specially invented characters. People like to recognize characters they previously liked.
The ballad as a literary genre has the following features:
- The presence of a composition: introduction, main part, climax, denouement.
- Having a storyline.
- The author's attitude towards the characters is conveyed.
- The emotions and feelings of the characters are shown.
- A harmonious combination of real and fantastic plot points.
- Description of landscapes.
- The presence of secrets, riddles in the plot.
- Availability of character dialogues.
- A harmonious combination of lyricism and epic.
Thus, we figured out the specifics of this literary genre and gave a definition of what a ballad is.
From the history of the term
For the first time, the term “ballad” was used in ancient Provençal manuscripts back in the 13th century. In these manuscripts, the word "ballad" was used to describe dance movements. In those days, this word did not mean any genre in literature or other forms of art.
As a poetic literary form, the ballad began to be understood in medieval France only at the end of the 13th century. One of the first poets who tried to write in this genre was a Frenchman named Jeannot de Lecurel. But, for those times, the ballad genre was not purely poetic. Such poems were written for musical productions. The musicians danced to the ballad, thereby amusing the audience.
In the 14th century, a poet named Guillaume fe Machaut wrote more than two hundred ballads, as a result of which he quickly became famous. He wrote love lyrics, completely depriving the genre of “danceability.” After his work, the ballad became a purely literary genre.
With the advent of the printing press, the first ballads printed in newspapers began to appear in France. People really liked them. The French loved to gather with the whole family at the end of a hard day of work to enjoy the interesting plot of the ballad together.
In classical ballads from the time of Machaut, in one stanza of text, the number of verses did not exceed ten. A century later, the trend changed, and ballads began to be written in square stanza.
One of the most famous balladeers of that time was Christina of Pisa, who, like Machaut, wrote ballads for print, and not for dancing. She became famous for her work “The Book of a Hundred Ballads”.
After some time, this genre found its place in the works of other European poets and writers. As for Russian literature, the ballad appeared in it only in the 19th century. This happened due to the fact that Russian poets were inspired by German romanticism, and since the Germans of that time described their lyrical experiences in ballads, this genre quickly spread here too. Among the most famous Russian poets who wrote ballads are Pushkin, Zhukovsky, Belinsky and others.
Among the world's most famous writers, whose ballads have undoubtedly gone down in history, one can name Goethe, Kamenev, Victor Hugo, Burger, Walter Scott and other outstanding writers.
IN modern world In addition to the classical literary genre, the ballad also found its primary musical roots. In the West there is a whole musical movement in rock music called “rock ballad”. The songs of this genre are sung mainly about love.
