ballad
Ballads often recount dramatic or tragic events. This topic is part of Poetry within Literature. This page currently draws on 21 supporting questions, with answers and bonus facts available below.
ballad trivia questions
A ballad is traditionally a poem or song that does what?
Answer: Tells a story
Bonus fact: Ballads often recount dramatic or tragic events.
Traditional English ballads often use alternating lines of four and how many stresses?
Answer: Three
Bonus fact: Ballad meter commonly alternates tetrameter and trimeter.
How were traditional ballads often passed down?
Answer: Orally
Bonus fact: Oral transmission produced many variant versions.
What was the original definition of a ballad given by Smithsonian Folkways?
Answer: A form of verse, often narrative, set to music
Bonus fact: Smithsonian Folkways notes that the modern word 'ballad' is also often used for a slow song, frequently about love or loss.
Musical ballads originated in which country in the 1300s?
Answer: France
Bonus fact: The same overview says ballads became influential among Europe's lower and middle classes from roughly 1300 to 1500.
Ballads originated around which century?
Answer: 14th century
Bonus fact: The overview dates their origin to France in the 1300s and notes a renewed folk-revival popularity after World War II.
Who co-wrote Lyrical Ballads with William Wordsworth?
Answer: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Bonus fact: Lyrical Ballads became a landmark of English Romanticism.
In what year did the first edition of Lyrical Ballads appear?
Answer: 1798
Bonus fact: The 1800 edition added Wordsworth's influential extended preface on poetic language.
Which ballad on "Shut Down Volume 2" is often praised for Brian Wilson’s increasingly sophisticated production?
Answer: Don’t Worry Baby
Bonus fact: "Don’t Worry Baby" was partly inspired by Phil Spector’s production style and became a landmark Beach Boys recording.
Which song from "Axis: Bold as Love" became one of Jimi Hendrix's best-known ballads?
Answer: Little Wing
Bonus fact: "Little Wing" later became a frequently covered Hendrix composition.
Coleridge collaborated with which poet on Lyrical Ballads?
Answer: William Wordsworth
Bonus fact: The 1798 collection helped launch English Romanticism.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge co-wrote which landmark poetry collection with William Wordsworth?
Answer: Lyrical Ballads
Bonus fact: Lyrical Ballads became a foundational work of English Romanticism.