A Ballad is best described as what?

• A. A long epic poem about heroes
• B. A narrative poem derived from folk tales used to tell a story through music
• C. A sonnet about love
• D. A dramatic monologue

Answer: (B)

Ballads are narrative songs that tell a story, typically drawn from folk traditions and meant to be sung or chanted. This question is testing your ability to recognize that a ballad combines storytelling with a musical, oral-origin form. The description that matches both elements—narrative poetry rooted in folk tales and delivered through music—best captures what a ballad is.

The other descriptions point to different forms: an epic poem is a lengthy, grand tale of heroic deeds; a sonnet is a short, fixed 14-line lyric about a single theme, often love; a dramatic monologue is a single-character speech within a dramatic situation.