THE BALLAD
The ballad is a kind of text aimed at singing and dancing. It dates back at the Middle Ages and is a popular form of poetry.
Originally ballads were transmitted from generation to generation, so there are rhymes and other figures as far as the sound level, which allow to remember them.
The writers used a concrete matter of language and dialect to feel the stories closer to the common people. The mixture of dialogue and narration conveys. It usually talk about common topics like: tragic love stories, unearthly facts and battles fought by valorous knights.
The ballads allow us to understand the characters' social role and thanks to some references to space and time, the reader perceives the settings of the story narrated.

LADY DIAMOND
- The ballad is made up of 13 four-line stanzas.
- It has not got a regular rhyme scheme, but sometimes they are alternated.
- The story is told through narration by an omniscient narrator but you can find also dialogs. Descriptive passages are short and concise.
- The language is concrete and the style simple.
- This beginning remind me a fable and it told us an indefinite time and space, while the ballad does not say that; both talk about a king and his daughter.
- The second stanza refers to autumns: "till the grass overgrew the corn".
- The fourth stanza refers to winter because the text says "on a winter's night".
- Lady Diamond's hands are lily and white to underline her noble origins while the boy's breast is white to underline the purity of his soul.
- Lady Diamond knows that she disobeyed her father so she prays him not to end their love.
- I think, the singer's attitude seems to stand by the girl.

THE HOUSE CARPENTER
- The man is a seaman who said to be rich and he is fallen in love with the wife of a house carpenter. They have got a relationship, but it is temporary.
- The man said he could have married the King's daughter and become rich but he preferred the love of the girl.
- The man wants the girl to leave her husband, her son and her house and to go away with him.
- She needs to know if the man is rich or not.
- Once she has left, she misses her baby.
- The ship sinks and they die
- Here I can find the repetition, the alliteration, and the rhyme, the use of concrete language and the theme of the tragic love and religion.
- The sea captain is the tempter devil. It reminds me the episode of the snake who tempted Eva to eat the apple.
- Heaven is fair and high, while Hell is dark and low.
- Heaven is a forbidden place for the lovers because sometimes they go against the wil of God.

LORD RANDAL
- The ballad is arranged into 10 quatrains that follow the typical structure of ballads.
- Easy language and use of dialect.
- Refrains, aimed to remember the text.
- Dialogue between Lord Randal and his mother.
- There are incremental repetitions and in
- In the first 5 quatrains the mother asks him what happened into the forest, while in the 6th one stanza she realizes that he had been poisoned by the lover he met into the forest.
- Then there is a lower climax: Lord Randal tells the mother what things will leave to his relatives, and his behavior is nice, smart and generous.
- In the last quatrain his mother asks him: "What y'de leave to your true love, Lord Randal, my son?" and for the first time in the ballad he becomes angry and decide to give his love only pain.
- The intelligent reader perceives that the protagonist dies for his love.