Free Ballad Generator
Generate a narrative ballad in common meter, with ABCB quatrains, plain language, and a story that moves.
Optional
Four-line stanzas that tell a story
Should it rhyme?ABCB, set by form
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What is a ballad?
A ballad tells a story you could sing. Four-line stanzas, a swinging alternation between four beats and three, and a plot that moves through events rather than sitting inside a feeling.
The rules, exactly
- Quatrains rhyming ABCB.
- Alternate four-beat and three-beat lines (common meter).
- Tell a story with a clear sequence of events.
- Use plain, concrete language and let dialogue carry the drama.
- A repeated refrain is welcome.
- Rhyme
- ABCB
Where it comes from
Ballads were oral before they were written, carried through the British Isles by singers who reshaped them each performance. The Romantics took the form seriously, and Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner proved it could hold weight.
It is an ancient Mariner, And he stoppeth one of three.