How have modern poets such as Charles Causley been inspired by the ballad?
- Words:
- 1826
- Submitted:
- Thu Jul 11 2002

... How have modern poets such as Charles Causley been inspired by the ballad? A ballad is a popular way of telling a story. It is part of an oral tradition where the ballad is sung or told aloud. The old surviving ballads were mostly from the middle-ages and mainly Scottish. A lot of the English ones were lost as the written word was used for the spreading of the news and stories instead of making ballads with them. People were normally paid to create and sing the ballads. These people were called ballad mongers. Ballads were first made because not many people could read or write and they were an easy way of remembering the stories. The ballads were based on true stories, which were stripped down to the basics. Such as in The Twa Corbies, this ballad tells a simple story of two crows planning to eat a dead man













