Analyzing the style of Ballads

Sir Patrick Spens

Ballads are narrative poems telling the story of a single incident, originally composed to be recited
or sung, of folk origin and anonymous. They share certain stylistic characteristics giving them their literary
style. This essay will discuss the stylistic features of “Sir Patrick Spens”, a traditional Scottish ballad
written sometime during the 15th century.

It is composed in eleven stanzas of four lines each (quatrains). It alternates lines of four and three
beats (Regular meter) and are rhymed abcb. The beats, and sometimes repetition of sounds within lines,
make for its rhythm.

The narration is impersonal, i.e. it is not the recount of a personal experience, but told from a more
objective point of view, as if it were a sequence of scenes or images. Nonetheless, it produces strong
emotional impact because of its simple but rapid progression to a tragic end giving it intensity.

Another of its characteristics is spareness. Very few dramatic scenes are used to move rapidly to
the climax. There is economy of words, descriptions are scarce. It leaves a lot to imagination, as many
explanations, reasons and even key events such as the storm and the shipwreck themselves are left out
altogether. Details must be inferred from dialogue and action. Only essential events and words have been
included. In stanza 8, for example, we must infer the ship has already sailed and wrecked.
O our Scots nobles were richt laith
To weet their cork-heeled shoon,
But lang owre a’ the play were played,
Their hats they swam aboon.

The author makes heavy use of formulaic expressions and some stock phrases. Examples of
these are included in line 21: “Make haste, make haste, my mirry men all”. The use of adjective-phrases
that are formulaic is also present, for instance, the ‘blude-reid wine’ in line 2.

We also find narrative progress through stanzas joined by repetition. A case is found at the start of
the 9th and 10th stanzas; “O lang, lang may the ladies sit” and “O lang, lang, may the ladies stand”
respectively. An example of a refrain (regularly recurring phrase or verse) is present in stanza 4:

The first line that Sir Patrick red,

A loud lauch lauched he:
The next line that Sir Patrick read,
The tear blinded his ee.

Other forms of repetition are used for emphasis. When a sailor refers to the new moon, for
example, he says “I fear, I fear” twice in the same line (27), trying to convey his dread to the Captain.

Ballads offer tragic themes as their main subjects, often involving the supernatural. This poem´s
themes include disaster, mortality, fate, loyalty, duty and power. A symbol of the supernatural is present in
“the new moon”, forewarning of a deadly storm. In fact, we are given clues to the ballad´s disastrous
conclusion from the very beginning. The foreknown, foredoomed finale is hinted at in the first stanza: the
king drinking blood-red wine foreshadows tragic death at his hands. Other indicators include Spencer’s
reaction to the King´s letter, the sailor´s response upon being asked to sail and the setting of the new
moon as a bad omen.

As we can appreciate, “Sir Patrick Spencer” is a true exponent of the stylistic features of ballads,
and therefore of its genre.