BONNY BARBARA ALLEN

1.      TITOLO: Bonny Barbara Allen. It was written anonymously in Scotland between 13th and 14^thcentury.  I think  this ballad talks about a women Barbara Allen and about love because it was a common topic of medieval ballads.

2.      COMPRENSIONE: The poem is about unrequited love.  Sir John Graeme falls in love with Barbara Allan.  He is so lovesick that he is bound to his deathbed.  When Barbara comes to visit her sick lover, she didn’t grieve for the poor lover.  John dies, and then Barbara feels

guilty, so she asks her mother to prepare her deathbed for the following day.  Because she had repented of the day when she rejected him, so she did bury next to him.

3.      LAYOUT: this ballad is composed of eight strophes, which in their turn are composed of quatrains.

4.      MESSAGGIO: I think the message that the author wants to send us is: we don’t refuse the love of a person because we realize only after his death that we were lost. Barbara Allen is the example.

5.      ANALISI CONNOTATIVA:

a.      Livello semantico: the autor used some difficult words which were used in the antique  English Language around the middle ages like: a-falling, haste, gin ye be, hooly, a’, dinna ye mind, gae round, slighted, adieu, reft, twa, jow, cry’d woe.

b.      Livello sintattico: Use of –ing verbs:  In every stanza except the last, there is at least one –ing verb used.  These verbs maintain a continuous flow among stanzas and help to keep the action moving throughout the ballad. The rhyme scheme is not regular, so it varies throughout the poem. The A rhyme is repeated most often and is representative of the –ing words used before.

c.       Livello retorico: Personification:  Death is personified in lines 22 and 28 as one that deprives the speaker Sir John Graeme of life and health.