n of the two. The ballad form generally shortens action inthat it focus’ on a single, usually, climactic event and eludes to thebuilding and conclusion of this event. Coincidentally, the rural roots ofballads parallel the themes that generally deal with basic aspects oflife, such as; love and death, but seem to have a supernatural element.“The quatrain, a stanza of four lines, rhymed or unrhymed, is themost common of all English stanzaic forms. And the most commontype of quatrain is the ballad stanza, in which lines of iambictetrameter alternate with trimeter, rhyming abcb (lines 1 and 3 beingunrhymed) or, less commonly abab” (Fergueson, 1114). Montagu usesmany of these elements in that she stays remains consistent with thetheme of ballads and writes about love. The supernatural aspect to herballad is not necessarily supernatural, but in fact leans to Greekmythology. Her conclusion ends with reference to Ovid alluding toThe Metamorphoses’ which “...tells stories of virgins who aretransformed into a laurel tree (Daphne) or a fountain (Arethusa), ratherthan succumb to the importunities of a pursuing god” (Footnote to TheLover: A Ballad, Damrosch, 2568). Greek mythology can becategorized as supernatural though, depending on the audiences’beliefs, in that it’s main characters are Gods and humanlike creatureswith supernatural, superhuman abilities. Despite staying in theframework of themes and elements of the ballad, Montagu goesagainst the traditional definition and sets The Lover: A Ballad, in sixeight line stanzas composed of anapestic tetrameter rhyming couplets. During the 18th century, the literary world was dominated bymale poets and writes leaving the women poets and writersunsuccessful and unestablished. Notwithstanding the male circles ofliterature, Aphra Behn was the exception, she could hold her own andhelped lead the way to women writers at a time when women weredepicted to be pass...
