BONNY BARBARA ALLEN ANALYSIS

 

1)      THE TITLE: the text maybe is about Barbara Allen’s life.

 

2)      THE LAYOUT: the poem is a folk ballad, meaning that it rhymes and it was sung or recited. The usual ballad’s objective is to focus the spectator’s attention on a singular theme.

3)     

WORDS UNKNOWN: 

·         Martinmas: San Martino

·         leaves: foglie

·         was dwelling: abitava

·         Gin ye be: se sei tu

·         hooly: lnetamente

·         curtain: tendina

·         were a spilling:

·         dinna ye mind: non ti ricordi

·         ye made the healts gae round and round: tu hai bevuto molto

·         slighted: hai fatto arrabbiare

·         reft: privato

·         twa: due

·         jow: rintocco

·         woe: dolore

 

4)      MESSAGE OF THE POEM: The poem is about unrequited love.  Sir John Graeme falls in love with Barbara Allen, but also if  he is so lovesick, when Barbara comes to visit her ailing lover, she reminds him that he slighted her in front of others at a local tavern. Sir John Graeme dies, and she feels guilty.

The message might be that love is not guarantee, so the beloved might not be there when it is wanted. The message relates to modern time when many relationships involve one person who loves the other. So the message is about love that is often painful.

 

5)      CONNOTATION:

·         Syntactic level: The poem consists of eight stanzas, each of four verses. The poem does not follow a regular rhythmic scheme.

·         Semantic level: The main semantic field is that of death and sickness. The negative words are repeated. The semantic field of pain is accompanied with the adverbs “hooly” and “slowly”, that protract the ache.

·         Rhetoric level: In the poem there is the personification of the death (vv 22, 28) and of the dead-bell (vv 30-32). There are a lot of repetitions (Barbara Allen, hooly, sick, slowly, death, adieu, dead-bell). There is a –ing verb in all the stanzas.

 

6)      HOW THESE LEVELS CREATES THE MEANING OF THE MESSAGE?

The use of the semantic field of pain to describe love connotes the message negatively. All the stanzas are connected by the –ing verbs, so all the stanzas have the same message, also if the stanzas didn’t have the same syntax. The “painful love” is accented by the repetitions of the words that have a negative meaning, by the adverbs “hooly” and “slowly” and by the personification of the death, which seems to be a powerful force that deprives persons by the love. Finally, the repeats of Barbara Allen reminds to the reader that only the persons are the lead of love.  

 

7)      WHO IS THE ADRESSEE OF THE POEM?

Considering the type of the poem and the ballad’s message, the addressee of the poem is all the people, expecially who fall in love.