To this twenty-four hours. laies are still enjoyed by some persons ; many coevalss ago they were at the very bosom of amusement. Passed on orally. they centred such interesting topics as tragic love. Typically. although laies are reasonably simple. in that they do non be given to concentrate on word picture. they have a rapid duologue. and are normally in the signifier of quatrains. and riming in abcb. As a traditional lay “Bonny Barbara Allan” employs these traditional qualities and conventions: it is written in quatrains with an abcb riming scheme form. employs rapid duologues. displays a deficiency of word picture and trades with tragic love.
The most noticeable characteristic of this lay is the four line stanzas riming in abcb. When the 2nd and the 4th stanza are non existent rime. the poet uses an approximative rime. We can number three existent rimes and six approximative rimes. The gap quatrain’s foremost and 2nd stanza consists of an approximative rime:
It was in and about the Martinmas clip.
When the green foliages were a falling.
That Sir John Graeme. in the West Country.
Fell in love with Barbara Allan. ( Line 1-4 )
Other approximative rimes can be found in the 2nd. 4th. fifth. 6th. and 8th quatrain as for the existent rime they are present in the 3rd. 7th and 9th quatrain. The first existent rime is:
O hooly. hooly rose she up.
To the topographic point where he was lying.
And when she drew the drape by.
“Young adult male. I think you’re deceasing. ” ( Line 9-12 )
The rapid duologues create the feeling that there is a causal nexus between Barbara Allan and Sir John Graeme although. they ne’er speak straight to each other. It besides creates a more dramatic tone. Before each duologue. there is an introductory stanza which breaks the existent conversation into 1 that is being told ; without those stanzas we would read “Young adult male. I think you’re deceasing. ” ( Line 12 ) . “O it’s I’m sick. and really. really sick” ( Line13 ) .
We are provided with merely obscure clip puting. season. and topographic point. Possibly. the most telling is the “Martinmas clip. ” ( Line 1 ) it is Christian banquet observed in memorialization of the decease and entombment of Saint Martin of Tours and takes topographic point on November 11. The “green foliages were a falling” ( Line 2 ) besides support the day of the month since winter is the season trees do non hold any foliage. The last indicant is in the 2nd stanza. “He sent his adult male down through the town” ( Line 5 ) which suggest a little town because during the fourteenth century walking was the manner people got by.
Throughout the verse form. the importance of some words is emphasized by emphasis and repeat “slowly. easy raise she up” to give us the feeling that even as we read he movements becomes slower and slower. Furthermore. we can place easy the tragic love nowadays. once more another typical component of laies. We can detect this component particularly in these two peculiar quatrains:
“O it’s I’m sick. and really. really ill.
And ’tis a’ for Barbara Allan: ”
“O the better for me ye’s ne’er be.
Tho you heart’s blood were a spilling. ( Line 13-16 )
“O dinna ye head. you adult male. ” said she.
“When ye was in the tap house a imbibing.
That ye made the wellnesss gae unit of ammunition and unit of ammunition.
And slighted Barbara Allan? ” ( Line 17-20 )
In her obstinacy. Barbara Allan refuses to forgive Sir John Graeme for non crispening to her wellness even though she knows he is ill. She leaves him to decease without complete peace ; she holds this score against him until he passes off. Despite the score. her love is echt and accordingly she chooses to decease for John. The action of deceasing for him is non explicitly stated. but we are non left thinking her destiny for the poet uses symbolism. in peculiar the “bed. ” to propose a funeral.
All the elements needed for it to be a typical lay are present. The format of the stanzas. the riming strategy. the attending paid to word picture. the velocity of the duologues. and the tragic love all correspond to the norm.
