Ballads

ballads are traditional forms of poetry that convey romantic and lurid stories.
they are narrative poems written in the thirteenth. century and are still being written today especially in songs.

ballads take on many forms.
one popular form is the four-line stanza where the first and third lines are written in iambic tetrameter (4 iambs)
the second and fourth lines are written in iambic trimeter (3 iambs)

ballads rhyme scheme is (ABXB) where the third line (X) need not rhyme, but it may rhyme with (A)

Example of ballad :

the hun|ter moon|orange glow|shine'th|
spray red|rays on|the waves
as big|whales blow|bubbles|overhead
and males|fight for|a mate