A Critical Analysis of Sir Patrick Spens, The Ballad Essay

Sir Patrick Spens is, for the most part, an archetypal early on ballad being composed in quatrains, with the typical alternating four-stress and three-stress lines and the second and fourth line of from each one stanza rhyming. The poem is set in medias res, telling certainly of a tragedy, possibly based on two voyages in the thirteenth-century on which Scottish noblemen transported princesses to royal marriages, with many members of Alexander IIIs daughter Margarets escort drowning on the journey home. The theme of tragedy and having a plot based on local anaesthetic history are both elements often seen in the ballad form. However, the poem does also defy characteristics of the traditional ballad it includes a third person narrative voice that is not necessarily impartial, which contradicts the typically im person-to-person, distanced recitation commonly found in this genre of poetry. There is an example of a satirical placement of the high classes, mocking the kings decision to not withhold the voyage and also mocking the fact that the nobles boarded the ship, for if they had not, then the tragedy would have been avoided.The dark humour found in the personification of their hats that swam aboon(line 32) exemplifies a view not particularly sympathetic with the drowning victims, which coupled with the conceit that the play were played(line 31) suggests the inevitability that this would be the situation, all the way signifying a mockery of the decisions made by the higher classes. Early ballads often contain substantive regional dialect as they were originally orally transmitted. This particular dialect gives the reader a strong idea of the origins of the ballad and lends a sense 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 incision to highlight sections of the ballad, for example, when it is used to describe the King drinking blood-red wine or blude-reid wine (line 2). This strong image is prefigurative of the tragic ending of the poem and echoes the previously displayed idea that the narrator feels the king is obligated for this misfortune. The narrators view reflects the idea of power without responsibility which makes this ballad somewhatahead of its time. It was elevated that royalty were questioned when the ballad form flourished in Scotland from the fifteenth century onward. This notion that the poem is quite a ahead of its time implies that at least this ballad negates the view of Ben Johnsons dictum a poet should detest a ballad maker1 as clearly here the early ballad demonstrates a brilliant use in its ability to convey a persons personal political view in a rather active way, passing on their message by word of mouth and challenging the accepted.