Ballad metre
or ballad stanza is the usual form of the folk ballad and its literary
imitations, consisting of a quatrain in which the first and third lines
have four stresses while the second and fourth have three stresses. Usually
only the second and fourth lines rhyme. The rhythm is basically iambic,
but the number of unstressed syllables in a line may vary, as in this stanza
from the traditional 'Lord Thomas and Fair Annet':
'O art
thou blind, Lord Thomas?' she said, 'Or canst thou not very well see? Or dost thou not see my
own heart's blood Runs trickling down my knee?'