ANALISYS OF TWO BALLADS

"LADY DIAMOND" PAG. 5

This is an English ballad. From its title, "Lady diamond", the reader expects the text to be about a woman who belongs to aristocracy, because she is called "lady" and not "woman". Moreover we understand that she is loved by someone who calls her "diamond".

This story is about a noble and powerful king who has a daughter that he loves a lot. One day she falls in love with the kitchen boy and she got pregnant. After five months her father finds out about it and, since the girl has decided to marry the kitchen boy, he orders to kill him. After having obeyed their lord, the men take the heart of the kitchen boy, put it in a gold bowl and give it to the lady. The girl cries her heart out and, shattered by grief, she dies. Only after the king has lost his diamond, he understands the deep mistake he has made.

This ballad is structured into thirteen quatrains where the second and the fourth lines are shorter than the others. Reading the text the reader can find many figures of speech, which create musicality during the reading and help memorization. Since
from the first line there is a repetition of the noun "king". Then the reader can find many incremental repetition, like in line 7 or in the tenth quatrain. The text is structured with an abcb rhyme which recurs for its whole length. The language is concrete and resorts to images of everyday life and country life to express ideas and events, such as in line 8 or 11-12. The description of characters is essential, like in every ballad, as far as the references of place and time. The text gives the reader only little information which let him understand the story. The story is told by use of both dialogue and narration and the speaking voice is an external narrator.

This ballad is about a tragic love story. Despite the plot, it perfectly shows some aspects of Medieval life and society. There was a rigid division in classes and member of different classes were not allowed to marry together. There was no place for love. The only important thing was to maintain and enrich family estates so the father had the right to choose the best husband (the richest) to its daughter. Who had money and power could order and do everything. His men, thanks to the king's order, do everything he wants, even if it is a crime. 

THE HOUSE CARPENTER PAG. 9

This is an English ballad. Its title, "The house carpenter", does not create many expectations on the reader. He/She understands the story will deal with poor people, a carpenter and his family perhaps. 
This ballad is about a tragic love story. The main characters are the wife of the carpenter and her lover. He wants her to flee away with him and to leave her husband and child. At first she doesn't accept and asks him what he will do in order to maintain
her. He promises her many ships and gold so she decides to leave her family and go with him. But after two weeks she misses her child and after three the ship on which they were sailing sinks. They dye and they see both Hell and Heaven, but they have to go to Hell. 
This ballad is divided into fourteen quatrains, where the second and the fourth line of each stanza are shorter than the others. During the reading, you can find a large use of figure of speech, which give musicality to the text and help memorization. One of the main techniques used is incremental repetition. Some examples of it are in the first two lines, line 29-41, the twelfth stanza and the last two. Other figures of speech are repetition (lines 3, 16, 21) and alliteration (line 15). Moreover the whole text is structured using the abcb rhyme. This story is told both by narration and dialogue. Narration is used only to outline time which passes and the main facts that happen. The speaking voice is an external narrator. The reader does not know many details of the characters, he knows neither their names. This because what is important is what they do and what they represent and not who they are.  

This ballad shows Medieval society from a particular point of view. The woman takes a unexpected and strong choice, which the reader does not think could happen in that period. Indeed it is then followed by a "punishment". After only three weeks the two lovers dye. A typical aspect of Medieval culture emerges here. Each action has a consequence on life after death. The whole life on Earth is spent to act in a good way in order to go to Heaven after death. Religious rules and values are very strong and important. Marriage is more important than love, so once she dyes, the woman has to go to Hell because she has become a sinner.