In a ballad, let the youngest passenger tell of a ferry crossing in fog.Stanzas: the horn, the white wall, a voice from another boat, the dock.
Make a ballad of a marching band whose bus breaks down an hour from the parade.Stanzas: the smoke, the walk, a farmer's hay wagon, the drums coming up Main Street.
Make a ballad of a night drive to reach an eclipse before the clouds do.Stanzas: the map, the flat tire, the cloud bank, the gap that opens.
Put into a ballad a crossing of the high pass on the last open day of the year.Stanzas: the warning at the inn, the mule that stops, the first flakes, the valley lights.
Sing the ballad of a grandmother who crossed an ocean with one trunk.Stanzas: what went in the trunk, the deck at night, the long line, the first street.
Sing the ballad of a sailor's first trip beyond sight of land.Stanzas: the harbor shrinking, the swell, the night watch, the gull that means shore.
Tell in a ballad how a rowboat with one oar got across the lake.Stanzas: the snapped oar, the circles, a plank pulled from the floor, the far reeds.
Tell in a ballad how a runaway goat led half the village over the hill.Stanzas: the open gate, the baker joins, the mayor joins, the goat walks home alone.
Tell in a ballad how the smallest kid on the block rode a bike to the end of the bus line.Stanzas: the dare, the big hill, the dog at the corner, the turnaround loop.
Tell the ballad of a letter that takes forty years to cross one town.Stanzas: the mailbag, the crack behind the counter, the new clerk, the knock.
Tell the ballad of a stray dog that followed one family's wagon for a hundred miles.Stanzas: the scrap thrown, the river forded, the night it kept watch, the name it got.
Write a ballad about a child sent on a borrowed horse to fetch the blacksmith.Stanzas: the stirrups too long, the washed-out bridge, the long way round, the forge lit.
Write a ballad about a walk home through the first snow, with one thing going wrong in every stanza.Stanzas: the shortcut, the frozen creek, the boot left in a drift, the porch light.
Write the ballad of a kite that broke its string, and what it flew over.Stanzas: the school roof, the river, the next town's fair, the tree it chose.
Write the ballad of a message in a bottle and the three shores it touched before it was read.Stanzas: the cork pushed in, the reef, the fisherman who threw it back, the child who could read.
A loss 15
In a ballad, tell how a bakery's hundred-year-old sourdough starter was thrown out by mistake.Ends on: a jar from a neighbor who was given a spoonful long ago.
Make a ballad of a red balloon let go at a parade.Ends on: the whole street looking up while the band plays on.
Make a ballad of a wedding ring that slipped off in a wheat field at harvest.Ends on: a glint behind the plow, thirty springs later.
Put into a ballad a snow fort that took a week to build and one warm afternoon to lose.Ends on: a flag on a stick, standing in a puddle.
Sing the ballad of a fiddle left on a train.Ends on: its tune coming from a station platform two towns on, played by a stranger.
Sing the ballad of a spelling champion undone by a word she spelled right every day at home.Ends on: the word, said once more, correctly, in the car.
Tell in a ballad how a farm was sold at auction, one lot at a time.Ends on: the buyer handing the weathervane back to the farmer.
Tell in a ballad how the blue-ribbon pie went missing between the oven and the judges' table.Ends on: one clean plate on the sill, and a very quiet dog.
Tell in a ballad how the old oak on the square came down in one night of wind.Ends on: children counting the rings of the stump in the morning.
Tell the ballad of a championship lost by one point in the last second.Ends on: the gym empty, one ball still rolling toward the wall.
Tell the ballad of a town band whose only tuba rolled off the back of the parade truck.Ends on: the march played anyway, with a hole where the low notes go.
Write a ballad about a fishing boat that came home without its nets.Ends on: the crew mending borrowed nets by lamplight, saying nothing.
Write a ballad about a valley village that lost its river to a dam.Ends on: the dry mill wheel, and a heron that still comes to look.
Write a ballad about the August a best friend's family packed the truck and left town.Ends on: the moving truck's turn signal at the end of the street.
Write the ballad of a homing pigeon that never came back from its longest race.Ends on: the loft door propped open for one more year.
A local legend 15
In a ballad, explain why no one in town will take the last stool at the diner counter.They say: it is kept for a trucker who promised to come back for pie.
Make a ballad of the light that crosses the marsh on the longest night of the year.They say: follow it and you reach home by a road that is not there.
Make a ballad of the stone wall with one gap that no mason has ever managed to close.They say: the gap is kept for whoever built it to walk back through.
Put into a ballad the apple tree that fruits out of season beside the old depot.They say: a brakeman tossed the core from the last train.
Put into a ballad the white-tailed fox that only the youngest child in town ever sees.They say: it shows itself the year before you are too old to believe in it.
Sing the ballad of the blacksmith who was paid by a stranger in a coin that never spends.They say: it is back in the till every morning.
Sing the ballad of the mail carrier who finished her route in the worst blizzard anyone remembers.They say: every box had its letter, and no track led to any of them.
Tell in a ballad how the mountain got the notch in its ridge.They say: a farmer's daughter threw a skillet at a thundercloud.
Tell in a ballad how the town's crooked chimney got its lean.They say: a giant sat down to rest and the mason was too polite to object.
Tell the ballad of the fog bell on the point that sounds before a storm with nobody near it.They say: the rope has been gone for fifty years.
Tell the ballad of the well that answers a question if you ask it politely.They say: it has been wrong only once, and that was about the weather.
Write a ballad about the catfish under the mill bridge that nobody has ever landed.They say: it has pulled in three rods, a rowboat and a constable's hat.
Write a ballad about the schoolhouse clock that stopped at recess and was never fixed.They say: nobody wanted to be the one who ended recess.
Write the ballad of the ferryman who has never been seen to age.They say: he takes his fare in songs he has not heard before.
Write the ballad of the stagecoach driver who still keeps his schedule on the old post road.They say: you can set a watch by the hoofbeats at ten past midnight.
A refrain 15
In a ballad, follow a baker through the night before a wedding, with the oven as the refrain.Refrain to try: And the oven door swung wide.
In a ballad, tell a snowed-in week, a day to a stanza, with the refrain at the window.Refrain to try: And still no track upon the road.
Make a ballad of a harvest brought in ahead of the frost, with a refrain that counts the fields left.Refrain to try: Three fields more before the cold. Then two, then one.
Make a ballad of a long rowing race in which the refrain keeps the stroke.Refrain to try: Pull, and the far shore comes.
Put into a ballad a train whistle heard from four different houses.Refrain to try: Two long, one short, and gone.
Sing the ballad of a storm at sea in which the whole crew joins the refrain.Refrain to try: Haul away, the morning's near.
Tell in a ballad how a rumor went round the town, with a refrain that passes it on.Refrain to try: Or so I heard the miller say. Then the tailor, then the priest.
Tell in a ballad the story of a promise, and let the refrain be the promise itself.Refrain to try: I'll be back before the leaves are down.
Tell the ballad of a mill wheel that never stops, and change one word of the refrain at the end.Refrain to try: And the wheel went round. Last time: And the wheel stood still.
Tell the ballad of a river in flood, and let the refrain rise with the water.Refrain to try: And still the rain came down.
Tell the ballad of a town clock that struck thirteen, with the refrain asked as a question.Refrain to try: Who was it wound the clock that night?
Write a ballad about a kid waiting for a bus that is later in every stanza.Refrain to try: It will be here any minute now.
Write a ballad about a lost dog's week away, where the refrain is someone calling its name.Refrain to try: Come home, Biscuit, come on home.
Write a ballad about a night watchman's rounds, with the same line closing every stanza.Refrain to try: And all the doors were locked but one.
Write the ballad of a dance that went on until the fiddler's last string broke.Refrain to try: One more tune, the night is young.
How it works
These ballad poem ideas are stories first: a goat leads half a village over a hill, a fiddle is left on a train, a fog bell sounds with nobody near it. The line underneath plans stanzas or offers a refrain.
Read the full guide
One moment to a stanza
A typical ballad is a plot-driven song: one or more characters, and events that hurry to a dramatic conclusion. It tends to show each crucial moment, not explain it, and is often built in quatrains, each line with as few as three or four stresses. The journey ideas hand you four moments, one for each of the first four stanzas.
A line that comes back
A refrain is the line or lines repeated in a poem or a song. Fifteen ideas come with one to try. Close each stanza on it, then change a word the last time: "the wheel went round" becomes "the wheel stood still."
Say each stanza aloud before you write the next. Ballads were passed along by recitation long before they were printed.
Rhyme only lines two and four at first. That leaves two lines in every stanza free to carry the story.
Questions and answers
What is a good idea for a ballad poem?
A story with a few sharp moments and a clear ending. Try the kite that broke its string and what it flew over, or the catfish under the mill bridge that has pulled in three rods, a rowboat and a constable's hat.
How many lines are in a ballad stanza?
Usually four. In the ballad stanza the first and third lines have eight syllables and the second and fourth have six. Ballads vary in their number of stanzas.
Does a ballad have to rhyme?
Many do: quatrains rhymed abcb or abab are common, and the key is that the second and fourth lines rhyme. Ballads have no prescribed structure, though, so the story comes first.
Does a ballad need a refrain?
No. The first ballads were written to go with dances and carried refrains in alternate lines, sung by the dancers. Today a refrain is a choice.