Lady Diamond

"Lady Diamond" is the title of this ballad and the name of the lady.

Right from the title we expect that this ballad tells about a noble woman, we know this thanks to the word "Lady", besides the word "Diamond" might express that this Lady is precious like a Diamond that is a valuable object.

This ballad is organized into 13 stanzas and each stanza has four lines, every stanza is short and the layout is similar to the other.

This ballad tells about a Lady that felt in love with a kitchen boy that worked in her court. She loved him so much and he loved her too, they had a relationship that was secret because in Middle Ages the relationship between nobles and serves was not good-looking and often the serves were killed by the powerful people that ordered to their vassals to kill the poor. Nobody knew about their love story but she was pregnant and she couldn't anymore lace her corsets and cloths because her belly was too much great so she cried.

Her father, the king, was worried so he asked her what was happen and she told him her story. The king was furious and he ordered to kill the kitchen boy and to take his heart and to bring it to the lady so she might look at her love. The kitchen boy's heart was full of blood and when the vassals brought to the lady, she began to cry, she was desperate and with her tears she washed the heart of her only true love. She couldn't live without him so she committed a suicide, now was the king desperate and alone without her dear daughter.

In the first line of the first stanza there is the repetition of the word "king", the second and the fourth line create a rhyme with the words "fame" and "name", the scheme of the rhyme is of the type ABCB.

In this stanza the narrator shows the class of the Lady, indeed her father is a king and we understand thanks to the word "dear" that he takes cure of her.

In the second stanza there is again the rhyme between the second and fourth line with the words "scorn" and "corn". The third line is longer than the others and in it there is an incremental repetition, the repetition of the word "loved" underlines that she loved him really.

In this stanza the narrator describes who the lady's lover is and what is his job, indeed the narrator shows the quality of the love towards the boy.

In the third stanza the second and fourth line create a rhyme with the words "greet" and "meet". This stanza expresses the time that goes on and thanks to the expression situates in the third line "for her petticoat grew short before" we can understand that she probably is pregnant so she cried.

In the fourth stanza the words "rest" and "ghost" create a rhyme. The word "ghost" probably highlights the way that the king went to her daughter. This stanza shows an event that happened at night, the word "winter" in the first line makes the reader understand that that night was cold and the season in which the story happened was winter.

In the second and fourth line of the fifth stanza the words "within" and "pin" create a rhyme. In this stanza we understand that her father is in her room and he asks her why so pale appears. The words "white hand" and "pale" make the intelligent reader understand that she doesn't feel well.

In this stanza there is also the first dialogue between the father and the daughter that goes on also in the next stanza.

The sixth stanza is a dialogue and in it there is also the rhyme creates by the words "joy" and "boy". In this stanza the daughter explains and confesses her love to the kitchen boy and confirms the level of the father to express and remember to her father his goodness.

In the seventh stanza we note that there is a dialogue and there is the repetition of the sound "all" in the words "call" and "all" situated in the first line, again in the first line there is the alliteration of the consonant "m" in the sentence "...me my merry men...". In the second line we can find the repetition of the word "by" followed by the words "thirty" and "three". The number three generally represent the trinity and thirty is however a multiple of the three. In this stanza the king ordered to call the kitchen boy and kill him secretly.

In the eight stanza there is the rhyme creates thanks to the words "heard" and "said". In this stanza many words explain the way and the dynamic of the kitchen boy's homicide. The first line underlines that all was made secretly and silently with the sentence "there wasn't any sound to be heard".

In the ninth stanza the words "bowl" and "behold" create a rhyme. This stanza illustrated a grisly scene in which the serve of the king cut the heart of the poor kitchen boy out of his breast and put it in a golden bowl so the lady would have been able to see her love.

In the tenth stanza there is in every verse the repetition of the possessive pronoun "my". In add there is the repetition of the first line in the third that create a rhyme. Also the start of the second and third stanza create a repetition "come to me", and also the second stanza makes a rhyme with the fourth with the words "joy" and "boy". This stanza shows Lady Diamond's pain and desperation of the loss of her lover.

In the eleventh stanza there is the rhyme created from the words "sore" and "more" and in the first and third stanza there is the repetition of the word "ain". This stanza shows subsequently the depression of the Lady that cried on the kitchen boy's heart and can wash it thanks to her tars.

In the twelfth stanza there is the rhyme creates from the words "fee" and "me" between the second and fourth stanza. This stanza is probably a monologue or a rhetorical question of the Lady where she expresses all her repentance and dolour.

In the thirteenth stanza, the last stanza of this ballad there is the rhyme creates with the words "joy" and "boy" of the second and fourth stanza. In this stanza talks the father and he regrets what he has done because now her daughter is dead too. She is dead because she loved so much the kitchen boy and now that he isn't more alive she can't live without him.