{"id":71349,"date":"2023-11-22T00:03:19","date_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/essays.homeworkacetutors.com\/a-critical-analysis-of-sir-patrick-spens-the-ballad-essay\/"},"modified":"2023-11-22T00:03:19","modified_gmt":"2023-11-22T00:03:19","slug":"a-critical-analysis-of-sir-patrick-spens-the-ballad-essay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/a-critical-analysis-of-sir-patrick-spens-the-ballad-essay\/","title":{"rendered":"A Critical Analysis of Sir Patrick Spens, The Ballad Essay"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2018Sir Patrick Spens\u2019 is, for the most part, an\u00a0archetypal early ballad being composed in\u00a0quatrains, with the typical alternating four-stress and three-stress lines and the second and fourth line of\u00a0each stanza rhyming. The poem is\u00a0set in\u00a0medias res, telling certainly of\u00a0a\u00a0tragedy, possibly based on\u00a0two voyages in\u00a0the thirteenth-century on\u00a0which Scottish noblemen transported princesses to\u00a0royal marriages, with many members of\u00a0Alexander III\u2019s daughter Margaret\u2019s escort drowning on\u00a0the journey home. The theme of\u00a0tragedy and having a\u00a0plot based on\u00a0local history are both elements often seen in\u00a0the ballad form.<\/p>\n

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However, the poem does also defy characteristics of\u00a0the traditional ballad; it\u00a0includes a\u00a0third person narrative voice that is\u00a0not necessarily impartial, which contradicts the typically impersonal, distanced narration commonly found in\u00a0this genre of\u00a0poetry. There is\u00a0an\u00a0example of\u00a0a\u00a0satirical view of\u00a0the higher classes, mocking the king\u2019s decision to\u00a0not withhold the voyage and also mocking the fact that the nobles boarded the ship, for if\u00a0they had not, then the tragedy would have been avoided.<\/p>\n

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The dark humour found in\u00a0the personification of\u00a0their hats that \u2018swam aboon\u2019(line 32) exemplifies a\u00a0view not particularly sympathetic with the drowning victims, which coupled with the idea that \u2018the play were played\u2019(line 31) suggests the inevitability that this would be\u00a0the situation, clearly signifying a\u00a0mockery of\u00a0the decisions made by\u00a0the higher classes. Early ballads often contain strong regional dialect as\u00a0they were originally orally transmitted. This particular dialect gives the reader a\u00a0strong idea of\u00a0the origins of\u00a0the ballad and lends a\u00a0sense of\u00a0authenticity to\u00a0the text, reaffirming the typicality of\u00a0this particular ballad, being a\u00a0further reference to\u00a0it\u2019s foundations in\u00a0local history.<\/p>\n

The dialect can also be\u00a0used as\u00a0a\u00a0tool to\u00a0highlight sections of\u00a0the ballad, for example, when it\u00a0is\u00a0used to\u00a0describe the King drinking blood-red wine or \u2018blude-reid wine\u2019 (line 2). This strong image is\u00a0prefigurative of\u00a0the tragic ending of\u00a0the poem and echoes the previously displayed idea that the narrator feels the king is\u00a0responsible for this misfortune. The narrator\u2019s view reflects the idea of \u2018power without responsibility\u2019 which makes this ballad somewhat ahead of\u00a0its time. It\u00a0was rare that royalty were questioned when the ballad form flourished in\u00a0Scotland from the fifteenth century onward. This notion that the poem is\u00a0quite a\u00a0ahead of\u00a0it\u2019s time implies that at\u00a0least this ballad negates the view of\u00a0Ben Johnson\u2019s dictum \u2018a poet should detest a\u00a0ballad maker\u2019[1] as\u00a0clearly here the early ballad demonstrates a\u00a0brilliant use in\u00a0it\u2019s ability to\u00a0convey a\u00a0person\u2019s personal political view in\u00a0a\u00a0rather active way, passing on\u00a0their message by\u00a0word of\u00a0mouth and challenging the accepted.<\/p>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Sir Patrick Spens\u2019 is, for the most part, an\u00a0archetypal early ballad being composed in\u00a0quatrains, with the typical alternating four-stress and three-stress lines and the second and fourth line of\u00a0each stanza rhyming. The poem is\u00a0set in\u00a0medias res, telling certainly of\u00a0a\u00a0tragedy, possibly based on\u00a0two voyages in\u00a0the thirteenth-century on\u00a0which Scottish noblemen transported princesses to\u00a0royal marriages, with many members […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6079],"tags":[5288,9590,9587,9588,5287,9591,9589],"class_list":["post-71349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-ace-myhomework","tag-au-assessments","tag-cheap-essay-writing-services-online","tag-dissertation-writing-help-for-students","tag-homework-ace-tutors","tag-homework-tutors","tag-write-my-essay-fast-online"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71349\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colapapers.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}