Name:______Class:______Date:______
Anonymous
The Unquiet Grave
This ballad appeared in Volume II of The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, edited by Francis James Child. A dead woman expresses, from the grave, a distaste for mourning that disturbs her eternal rest.
Rhyme scheme
“The wind doth blow today, my love, A
And a few small drops of rain; B
I never had but one true-love, A
In cold grave she was lain1. B
5I'll do as much for my true-love A
As any young man may; B
I’ll sit and mourn all at her grave C
For a twelvemonth and a day2.” B
The twelvemonth and a day being up, A
10The dead began to speak: B
“Oh who sits weeping on my grave, C
And will not let me sleep?” B
“ ‘Tis I, my love, sits on your grave, A
And will not let you sleep; B
15For I crave3 one kiss of your clay-cold lips4, C
And that is all I seek.” B
“You crave one kiss of my clay-cold lips; A
But the call of death is strong; B
If you have one kiss of my clay-cold lips, A
20Your time will not be long. B
Love, where we used to walk, A
The finest flower that ere was seen B
Is withered to a stalk5. A
The stalk is withered dry, my love, A
25 So will our hearts decay; B
So make yourself content, my love, A
Till God calls you away.” B
Work On The Text
LEXIS
1.While reading these lines find out the words which mean the following.P.4
1. moves the air: blows3. burial place: grave
2. small amounts of liquid: drops4. decompose: decay
2.List words and phrases referring to nature. Decide what they connote.
Words and phrases referred to nature are: wind (l.1), drops of rain (l.2), finest flower (l.22), withered to a stalk (l. 23), the stalk is withered dry (l.54).
They stand for magic arts. They connote an impending violence.P.2
They connote death. They stand for rebirth.
3.The other semantic area of the passage is that of death. Square words and phrases referring to it. What is it like? What is the relationship between nature and death?
The words and phrases referred to death are:"cold grave …. was lain" (l. 4); "mourn … at … grave" (l. 7); "weeping on grave" (l.11); "grave" (l.13); "the dead" (l.10); "clay-cold lips" (ll.15, 17,
19); "call of death"(l. 18); "our hearts decay" (l.25);
Death means decaying, absence of life and coldness. Nature is linked to death because every natural element in the ballad is dead or is about to die: see in particular lines 22 - 23 "The finest flower ………Is
withered to astalk" and line 24 "The stalk is withered dry ".
P.10
CONTENTS
4.After reading the ballad identify:
1.the setting in time and place The story takes place in a graveyard (cemetery) in autumn or
winter, a season when the wind is blowing and there is rain and the flowers are withered.
2.the characters involved are a young man and the ghost of his beloved.
P.5
5.Answer the following questions.
1.How does the ballad start?It starts with some information about the weather conditions (ll.1,2).
2.Where is the young boy’s true-love?She is in a grave.
3.How long is the boy going to mourn?He is going to mourn for a year and a day.
4.What happens after one year and a day of mourning?The girl's ghost begins to speak.
5.What does she ask?She wonderswho the person weeping on her grave is.
6.What does the boy wish?He wishes the girl could kiss him even if her lips are cold.
7.What does kissing the cold lips of a dead person mean?It means dying.
8.What is the field where the couple used to walk in the past like?It looks desolate/barren: the flowers are
withered (lines 22-23)
9.What does she suggest to her lover doing?She tells him to accept his destiny and keep on living until God calls him.
P.27
STRUCTURE AND STYLE
- Focus on the features of this ballad and fill in the table below.
Layout / It is made up of 7 four-line stanzas, only the sixth stanza is made up of three lines.
Rhyme scheme / It is quite regular, the rhyme scheme is partly ABAB and partly ABCB.
Alliteration / Alliteration is present in lines:
5 - much / my;
6 - man/may;
15 - 17 - 19: crave/ kiss / clay-cold
21 - wherewe used to walk;
22 - finest / flower
Repetition / The word "grave" is repeated in lines 4, 7,11, 13;
The phrase "cold-clay lips" is repeated in lines 15, 17, 19;
Language used / It is concrete and simple.
P.10
7. Identify the figure of speech of "The finest flower" (line 22). Then explain it.
Personification
Simile
Metaphor
Symbol
The finest flower, which has withered to a stalk, stands for the young boy's true love with her cold gray lips, who is lying dead underground. P.10
8. What is the general atmosphere of the ballad like?
Violent
Tragic
Melancholic
MagicP.2
9. Sum up the theme of the ballad. Do not use more than three lines.P.10
The ballad deals with the premature death of a young woman and the desperate love of her lover. The dead woman invites her lover to accept his destiny and wait for God to call him away.
10. Describe in about 150 words the main features of Medieval Ballads. P. 20
Medieval ballads were initially oral forms addressed to ordinary people with very little or no education at all so the devices used by minstrels took into consideration these aspects. On the whole the main features of ballads may be summed up as follows:
Dominant rhyme scheme ABCB or ABAB.
Stress Pattern: alternation of 4 stress lines and 3 stress lines.
Repetition of keywords, phrases, whole lines and refrains.
Alliteration.
Use of simple syntactic structures (i.e. there are no subordinate clauses).
Use of simple lexis.
Use of stock phrases (e.g. “fair pretty maid” in “Geordie”)
Use of formulae (e.g. “Come bridle me my milk-white horse, come bridle me my pony” in “Geordie”".
Narrative technique: a mixture of narration and dialogue;
Characters: both real and supernatural.
Themes: the supernatural and the magic, love (erotic or tragic love), war, outlawry, domestic tragedy. (150 words)