ballad stanza

American  

noun

Prosody.

1. a four-line stanza consisting of unrhymed first and third lines in iambic tetrameter and rhymed second and fourth lines in iambic trimeter, often used in ballads.

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ballad stanza British  

noun

1. a four-line stanza, often used in ballads, in which the second and fourth lines rhyme and have three stresses each and the first and third lines are unrhymed and have four stresses each

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Etymology

Origin of ballad stanza

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

Once read, it stays in the head forever, in part because of the ballad stanza, so weirdly fresh in her capable hands.

From The Guardian • Mar. 11, 2011

The stanza form is never complex; it is built up naturally from the ballad stanza upon which it rests and to which it constantly returns as its norm and type.

From A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century by Beers, Henry A. (Henry Augustin)

The ballad stanza, with its frequent variations of internal rime and additional verses is excellently illustrated by Coleridge's Ancient Mariner.

From The Principles of English Versification by Baum, Paull Franklin

But on account of its customary pause after the fourth foot, it very early broke into two short lines of four and three stresses each, and thus the septenary couplet became the ballad stanza.

From The Principles of English Versification by Baum, Paull Franklin