Ballade, not to be confused with a Ballad.
Pronouced: bahl ODD, rhymes with God.
Ballade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballade
The ballade typically consists of three stanzas of 8 lines each,
with a concluding 4-line envoi often addressed to a prince.
The stanzas and envoi employ a refrain in the last line.
The rhyme scheme is ababbcbC ababbcbC ababbcbC bcbC.
I found both tetrameter and pentameter poems, but no definition.
Example Poem
The Puppy
An only child I grew up free
of sibling squabbles, which was fine.
No nieces, nephews, there for me,
I was a lone leaf on the vine,
the end of this old family line.
I never felt my life flawed.
I found a puppy in decline.
A puppy was my gift from God.
I found the fellow by a tree,
abandoned, nestled by a pine.
We were then poor, but he was free!
I pledged to feed him food of mine.
The way we bonded seemed divine.
My mom and grandma were both awed.
The puppy never once did whine.
A puppy was my gift from God.
I taught the puppy where to pee.
He learned to sit with just a sign.
Where ever I was, there was he.
I nursed him ’til his eyes did shine
with life, no more was he supine.
He slept with me; he never gnawed.
He filled lonesome days with sunshine.
A puppy was my gift from God.
That puppy made my life benign.
Oh, Prince of Peace, men must applaud
the wonder of the grand design.
A puppy is a gift from God.
© Lawrencealot – April 22,2012
Related forms: Ballade, Ballade Stanza, Ballade Supreme, Double Ballade, Canzone II, Chanso, Double Ballade Supreme, Double Refrain Ballade, Double Refrain Ballade Supreme, Grand Ballade or Chant Royal.
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