Ballad meter

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The ballad meter, commonly found in ballads, has stanzas of four iambic lines. The first and third typically have four-stresses; the second and fourth have three-stresses and usually rhyme (Horton, 1995).

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me...
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
--"Amazing Grace"

Ballad meter is commonly used in the hymn, where it is called "common meter" (see hymn meters). It makes regularly appearances in English language poetry, as well. All of Wordsworth's "Lucy Poems" (including "She dwelt among the untrodden ways," or "A slumber did my spirit seal") are in ballad meter. Emily Dickinson, however, is probably the best-known user of ballad meter, because it is so common in her poetry, especially in her best-known pieces:

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality

For many people in the United States, however, the most memorable example of ballad meter will surely be the theme song to Gilligan's Island:

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip.
That started from this tropic port,
aboard this tiny ship.

[edit] Works Cited

• Horton, Ronald A. (1995). British Literature for Christian Schools. Bob Jones U, 100-1, 718.