This content was created by Michaila Gerlach. The last update was by Emily Bengtson.
Star of the Sea: A Postcolonial/Postmodern Voyage into the Irish FamineMain MenuAbout This ProjectStar of the Sea OverviewJoseph O'ConnorIn this section, you will learn more about Joseph O'Connor and the other works he producedPostcolonial TheoryPostmodernismThe Gothic in Star of the SeaHistorical FiguresLanguage and Music in Irish CultureBiology of the FamineLandlords, Tenants, and EvictionsIn the following pages, you'll learn about landlords, tenants, and evictions during the Irish Potato FamineGovernment Policies and EmigrationMediaMemorialsContributorsBrief biographies of the people who made this book.
12016-02-15T13:42:30-08:00Ballads37plain2353782016-04-08T13:57:28-07:00Ireland has songs about beautiful girls and drunken nights and drinking songs and nonsense songs. But some of their most beautiful and heartbreaking songs are ones that mourn the loss of their island, or deal with emigrating, or the famine. Most Irish folk songs with words can be considered ballads. Ballads are a "form of folk verse narrative. The majority of folk ballads deal with themes of romantic passion, love affairs that end unhappily, or with political and military subjects. The story usually is in dialogue form, in direct and unsparing language, arranged in quatrains with the second and fourth lines rhyming" (Quinn). They are essentially storytelling songs, and one can learn a lot about a culture based on what stories are frequently told in their music, stories that everyone knows.
Works Cited Quinn, Edward. "ballad." A Dictionary of Literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 5 Mar. 2016.
Researcher/Writer: Michaila Gerlach Technical Designers: Emily Bengtson and Maren Connell
