In this essay it will be proved that the ballad Sir Patrick Spence is a folk ballad. This

will be done by giving the distinctive marks of a folk ballad as listed by M.H. Abrams

in his A Glossary of Literary Terms. After giving the marks they will be pointed out in

Sir Patrick Spence. A folk ballad is a song that tells a story, the author is usually

unknown because many different people, who all added their own changes, sang the

ballad. The narrator tells the story in a dramatic way, but with few words and

without including his or her own feelings. The ballad itself consists of ballad stanzas

with four lines and usually the second and fourth line rhyme. There is a formula

which most ballads follow: There should be "stock descriptive phrases" "a refrain in

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 580
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)