To this day, ballads are still enjoyed by some individual although, many generations ago they were at the very heart of amusement. They were passed on orally, centring interesting subjects such as tragic love. Typically, ballads are fairly simple, they do no tend to focus on characterization, they have a rapid dialogue, they are usually in the form of quatrains, and rhyming in abcb. The poem "Bonny Barbara Allan" is a typical ballad since it …showed first 75 words of 349 total…

…showed last 75 words of 349 total…and consequently chose to die for John. The action of dying for him is not written word for word although, we are not left guessing her fate, the use of symbolism in particular the "bed" suggest a funeral. All the elements needed for it to be a typical ballad are present. The format of the stanzas, the rhyming scheme, the attention paid to characterization, and the speed of the dialogues all correspond to the norm.