Editing Ballad (section)

{{short description|Verse set to music}}
{{hatnote group|
{{For|the slow form of popular music such as love songs and pop & rock ballads|Sentimental ballad}}
{{Other uses}}
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{{Redirect|Balladeering|the album|Balladeering (album)}}
[[File:Maria_Wiik_-_Ballad.jpg|thumb|[[Maria Wiik]], ''Ballad'' (1898)]]

A '''ballad''' is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the [[Late Middle Ages]] until the 19th century. They were widely used across Europe, and later in Australia, North Africa, North America and South America.

While ballads have no prescribed structure and may vary in their number of lines and stanzas, many ballads employ [[quatrain]]s with ABCB or ABAB [[rhyme scheme]]s, the key being a rhymed second and fourth line. Contrary to a popular conception, it is rare if not unheard-of for a ballad to contain exactly 13 lines. Additionally, [[couplet]]s rarely appear in ballads.

Many ballads were written and sold as single-sheet [[Broadside (music)|broadsides]]. The form was often used by poets and composers from the 18th century onwards to produce lyrical ballads. In the later 19th century, the term took on the meaning of a slow form of popular [[love song]] and is often used for any love song, particularly the [[sentimental ballad]] of pop or rock music, although the term is also associated with the concept of a stylized storytelling song or poem, particularly when used as a title for other media such as a film.