A Critical Analysis of Sir Patrick Spens, The Ballad Essay

Sir Patrick Spens is, for the most part, an archetypal early lay being quiet in quatrains, with the typical alternating four-stress and three-stress lines and the second base and fourth line of each stanza rhyming. The poesy is set in medias res, telling certainly of a disaster, possibly based on two voyages in the thirteenth-century on which Scots noblemen transported princesses to royal marriages, with many members of Alexander iiis daughter Margarets accompaniment drowning on the journey home. The theme of tragedy and having a plot based on local history are twain elements a great deal seen in the ballad form. However, the poetry does in like manner defy characteristics of the traditional ballad it includes a third person fib voice that is non necessarily impartial, which contradicts the typically impersonal, distanced narration commonly found in this genre of poetry. There is an example of a satirical debate of the higher classes, do by the forces decision to not withhold the voyage and also vexatious the fact that the nobles boarded the ship, for if they had not, then the tragedy would bind been avoided.The dark humour found in the personification of their hats that swam aboon(line 32) exemplifies a consume not occurrencely sympathetic with the drowning victims, which coupled with the root word that the play were played(line 31) suggests the inevitability that this would be the situation, clearly signifying a mockery of the decisions make by the higher classes. Early ballads often contain pixilated regional emphasis as they were originally orally transmitted. This particular dialect gives the reader a strong idea of the origins of the ballad and lends a soul of authenticity to the text, reaffirming the typicality of this particular ballad, being a further reference to its foundations in local history.The dialect can also be used as a tool to highlight sections of the ballad, for example, when it is used to make the King drinking b lood-red fuddle or blude-reid wine (line 2). This strong control is prefigurative of the tragic ending of the poem and echoes the previously displayed idea that the narrator feels the king is responsible for this misfortune. The narrators view reflects the idea of power without responsibility which makes this ballad somewhat ahead of its term. It was rare that royal line were questioned when the ballad form flourished in Scotland from the 15th century onward. This notion that the poem is sooner a ahead of its time implies that at least this ballad negates the view of Ben Johnsons dictum a poet should despise a ballad maker1 as clearly here the early ballad demonstrates a brilliant use in its ability to convey a persons personal semipolitical view in a sort of active way, passing on their heart by word of mouth and challenging the accepted.