What is a folk ballad?

a. a poem with many words
b. four-line stanzas written in iambic pentameter
an anonymous dramatic song passed through the oral tradition
c. all of the above
d. none of the above

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Explanation:

C)all of the above.

If you grew up in the 80's (or are a fan of the decade's music), you're probably familiar with the 'power ballads' that were belted out by big-haired frontmen and were a staple of pop and rock music at the time.

Aside from their characteristically slower tempos, though, there's not much in common between these songs and their traditional predecessors, folk ballads.  

These orally transmitted tales told through song have been around for millennia and represent some of the earliest examples of vocal music.

Like the epic poems of the ancient Mediterranean, folk ballads are a type of folk song that heavily depended on myths and other stories that were circulated orally by pre-literate societies.  

In these typically rural cultures, families and other small groups of people found it easy to pass on their stories in the form of songs set to the customary meters and music of the area.

Folk ballads took the musical element a step farther than epics or many other folk songs, though.  

Derived from the Latin word ballare, 'ballads' were poetic tales intended not only to be accompanied by music, but also to themselves accompany the area's favorite dances.

As people danced to the familiar rhythms - with their movements sometimes reflecting the story's action - they would also be entertained with the generally brief and often tragic tales that folk ballads tend to tell.

These people can be portrayed as either saints or outlaws, but either way their actions are regularly interpreted as heroic.

Thousands of folk ballads have been recorded through the efforts of folk literature - a genre dedicated to preserving these and similar oral traditions.  

the swan might be a metaphor for our soul, which is ancient and timeless. the speaker wants to know where it's going and what it wants, what's the purpose in life. he asks our soul to follow him in knowing that god is us and the answer to the question "who am i" that was written on the wind of god's whim to know himself that blew over his being in the beginning of creation. and to connect to god consciously on the path to knowing him is the joy of loving him, like a bee that will grow and end our sorrows by ending desire. in that connection there is no doubt about god and existing forever.

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