A poetic form with three stanzas of eight or ten lines and a shorter concluding stanza, with a repeating refrain line throughout.
From Old French 'ballade,' descended from 'baller' (to dance). Originally ballades were meant to accompany dancing; the repetitive structure mirrors musical refrains.
The ballade's repeating refrain creates a haunting echo through the poem—poets like Villon used this form to obsess over a single idea, making the repeated line feel more desperate each time it appears.
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