LORD ULLIN'S DAUGHTER

Campbell (1777-1844), though not a poet of the people like Longfellow, was immensely successful with his ballads. Lord Ullin's Daughter was suggested to Campbell during a visit to the island of Mull, west of which lies the smaller island of Ulva. It may be compared with The Douglas Tragedy. It presents a simple situation in simple language and in nervous, singable verse. But Campbell was a literary man, this is his work, we have to take account of his skill and care. He has seen to it that the story is complete, connected, and dramatic. His descriptions are carefully wrought. The language, though simple, is epigrammatic and antithetic. The care with which he has carried the feminine rhymes through shows the polish of all of Campbell's work.

Explain: Ulva's Isle (see above), water-wraith. Compare with The Douglas Tragedy. Which ballad tells its story better? Which has more description? Is the description deliberate and with an eye to effect? Which story is the more tragic? Where does the "tragic fault" lie? Where and how has Campbell sentimentalized his story? Give examples of epigrammatic turn of phrase and antithesis. How does the verse differ from that of The Douglas Tragedy? Does Campbell's ballad have any or as many colorless lines (fillers)? Compare the verse with that of St. Stephen and Herod. Do you think Campbell deliberately employed internal rime in 6, 1; 8, 3; 12, 1; 14, 3? For what purpose?

LOCHINVAR

A good part of Scott's life may be summed up in the word: ballads. His first published work was a translation of Bürger's Lenore, he collected ballads (Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border), he retouched ballads (Kinmont Willie), he remodeled ballads (Lochinvar), he composed ballads of his own, he adapted ballad meters to use in long narrative poems. He caught the spirit of folk balladry and preserved it even in literary forms.

Young Lochinvar is Lady Heron's song in the fifth canto of Marmion. It is based on Katharine Janfarie; but the bride is English, Netherby Hall being in Cumberland.

2, 2. The Eske (Esk) is the border river flowing into Solway Firth. 4, 2. Solway. The tides in Solway Firth are strong and rapid; at

ebb-tide the flats are laid bare and it is possible to cross on them from Kirkcudbrightshire in Scotland to Cumberland.

8, 1-2. Scott loves to roll out the names of border clans. Compare Olterburn, stanza 2, note.

Explain: brake, measure, galliard, bonnet, croupe, scaur. Compare Young Lochinvar and Katharine Janfarie. What are the marks of popular origin in the latter, of Scott's authorship in the former? Which tells the story more effectively? Which gives more character description? How is the Lochinvar ballad suited to Lady Heron? Would Katharine Janfarie have served as well? What suggestion of Hind Horn? Point out the rhetorical question and other rhetorical devices used by Scott. How is the galloping effect of the meter obtained? What suggestion of refrain? Campbell was forever polishing his work, Scott was proverbially careless in writing. Is this difference evident in the two poems just studied?

THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS

This is a story of Francis I of France which has often been told, in verse e. g. by Schiller, Leigh Hunt, and Browning.

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) "excelled especially in narrative poetry, of which, upon a small scale, there are probably no better examples in our language than 'Abou ben Adhem' and 'Solomon's Ring."". Britannica. The former of these, an oriental apologue, is given here for comparison.

A BOU BEN ADHEM

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the presence in the room he said,

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,

And, with a look made all of sweet accord,

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again, with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God has blessed,-
And, lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest!

In what respect does The Glove and the Lions resemble an apologue? Why would it probably not be called an apologue? Why is Abou Ben Adhem not a ballad? How can the lines of The Glove be arranged so as to get twelve ballad stanzas? Why is the author's arrangement preferable? What part does the king play in the ballad? Does the opening line give an intimation of the end? What impression is made by the playing with the internal rime glove: love? How does the similar rime in the first stanza outline the story for us? Do you think Leigh Hunt merits his reputation for cleverness?

THE LAIRD O' COCKPEN

Caroline, Baroness Nairne (1766-1845), belonged both by birth and marriage to several of the most prominent Jacobite families, i. e., families which in 1745 supported the pretensions of Charles Edward Stuart to the English throne. It was for Charles that she was named Caroline. Many of her songs, the authorship of which she kept secret even from her husband, were written and sung by her to Jacobite tunes, to cheer the old age of her maternal grandfather, Duncan Robertson.

Lady Nairne caught the folk-tone in a number of songs and ballads. Burns has nothing finer than The Land o' the Leal, and neither Scott nor Campbell produced a better ballad than The Laird o' Cock pen. There is no better humorous ballad anywhere. The ballad was suggested to the author by a snatch of Scotch song:

When she cam ben, she bobbit,

When she cam ben, she bobbit,

When she cam ben, she kissed Cockpen,
And syne denied that she did it.

Mistress Jean also might have "bobbit" (curtsied), but Lady Nairne chose the more decorous "bow'd fu' low." The ballad is often printed with two concluding stanzas by Miss Ferrier, a Scotch novelist.

And now that the laird his exit has made,

Mistress Jean she reflected on what she had said:
"Oh, for ane I'll get better, it's waur I'll get ten,
I was daft to refuse the laird o' Cockpen."

Next time that the laird and the lady were seen,

They were gaun arm-in-arm to the kirk on the green:
Now she sits in the ha' like a weel-tappit hen,

But as yet there's nae chickens appear'd at Cockpen.

Compare the humor of the ballad with that of The Gay Goshawk and Get Up and Bar the Door. Explain the humor of stanza 2, line 4; stanza 3, line 4; stanza 7, line 4. Comment on the character description. Do you think the additional stanzas improve the ballad?

THE COURTIN'

This ballad opens the second series of the author's Biglow Papers. In an extended preface Lowell (1819-1891) discusses the use of the New England dialect in these poems and notes many interesting facts concerning so-called Americanisms of speech. The student will readily understand that while many of our old ballads are in dialect, they are not dialect ballads, as this is: there the dialect is the natural expression of the singer, here it is assumed for a purpose. What may that purpose be? Compare The Courtin' with other humorous ballads. What descriptions, comments, etc., would not be found in the older ballads? Compare the feminine rimes with those of Campbell.

5, 1. Crook-necks: crooked neck squashes. Peppers, onions, etc., were hung up and dried for winter consumption.

5, 3. Queen's-arm: musket.

5, 4. Concord. What is the allusion?

11, 3. Ole Hunderd: the tune of the 100th Psalm in the old Scotch metrical psalter; it is the tune to which the well-known doxology of T. Ken is sung.

24, 2. The Bay o' Fundy. The tides in the Bay of Fundy are very high.

24, 3-4. “Their marriage banns were published at church the following Sunday."

ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A MAD DOG

What is an elegy? Why is this poem called an elegy? In what sense is it a ballad? In what does the humor consist? Compare with the other humorous ballads. Has the poem a popular ring? Can you name any other poems of Goldsmith (1728-1774) that show more

of the influences noted in our general introduction to the New Ballads?

BETH GÊLERT

Spencer (1769-1834) was, like Campbell, a poet who could not wholly free himself from the traditions of the Augustan age even when he was touched by the romantic spirit. Much of the present ballad is mere rhetoric, and eight stanzas have for that reason been omitted, including six at the end, which describe Llewelyn's remorse and the tomb he reared for Gêlert.

The story of the poem is current throughout Europe and found in Persia, India, and China. The Welsh version localizes it near Beddgelert, a village at the foot of Snowdon, northern Wales. Beddgelert (pronounce dd as th in then) means "Gêlert's grave." Llewelyn was one of the last native princes of Wales. He espoused Joan, natural daughter of King John Lackland (reference in stanza 4). What part have animals played in ballads you have previously studied? Has a beast been the hero of any of them?

THE DREAM OF EUGENE ARAM

Eugene Aram was executed in 1759 for a murder that had then recently come to light, when, after a lapse of fourteen years, the bones of the murdered man were found in a cave. The motive of the crime appears to have been jealousy. Eugene Aram was a scholar of some distinction and one of the founders of the scientific study of the Celtic languages. His story is the subject of a novel by Bulwer-Lytton as well as of this ballad by Hood (1799-1845).

What is the theme of Hood's poem? To whom is the story told? What occasioned the telling? Why does Hood make Aram tell his story to a school-boy? How does the last stanza prove this? If you have read Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, compare the method of the two poems (contrast, psychological analysis, confession, description). Is description ever employed in the genuine popular ballad? psychological analysis? What suggestions of the old ballads in stanza 1, stanzas 15-16? What is the effect of the last two lines of each stanza?

Explain: usher, sprite, chamberlain.

2, 6. Lynn is in Norfolk. Aram was a teacher in a boys' school there.