To this day, ballads are still enjoyed by some individuals; many generations ago they were at the very heart of amusement. Passed on orally, they centred such interesting subjects as tragic love. Typically, although ballads are fairly simple, in that they do not tend to focus on characterization, they have a rapid dialogue, and are usually in the form of quatrains, and rhyming in abcb. As a traditional ballad "Bonny Barbara Allan" employs these traditional …showed first 75 words of 684 total…

…showed last 75 words of 684 total…action of dying for him is not explicitly stated, but we are not left guessing her fate for the poet uses symbolism, in particular the "bed," to suggest a funeral. All the elements needed for it to be a typical ballad are present. The format of the stanzas, the rhyming scheme, the attention paid to characterization, the speed of the dialogues, and the tragic love all correspond to the norm. <Tab/>