Frankie and Johnny is a classic olden ballad which tells us about a woman who shoots her lover for cheating. It's based on a true story and has been rewritten by countless writers; this has been an outstanding ballad through many pages of life. The poem has many fabulous features about it such as refrain in every paragraph, but this changes as the poem progresses. Frankie and Johnny were loving lovers, and the poem also says that “They swore to be true to each other” and they are compared to a simple simile “As true as the stars above.” That simile has two truths to it, 1) the stars are really true and so are Frankie and Johnny. 2) The stars are said to be true but they aren‘t, which means Frankie and Johnny aren’t. Number 2, is a form of oxymoron as stars are generally true but in this case they are not.
Another fantastic feature is that there is rhyme forced on the line of every two sentences. This makes sure that the ballad flows properly. It has a steady beat to the poem which makes it a lively poem. The poem builds itself slowly and it exposes the truth hidden behind the words of Johnny. The truth is that Johnny was having an affair with another girl called Nelly Bly; this is said in stanza 3. In paragraph 4 it reveals Frankie’s anger as she carries a gun with her while she’s trying to track down Johnny. Then in stanza 6, the wait is over and Johnny is seen by the eyes of Frankie, she peeps through the door keyhole and there he was on the sofa right next to Nelly Bly. The words point out that Frankie could not hold herself back anymore and her emotion pierced Johnny with a bullet.
In the tenth stanza, Frankie volunteers to take her Johnny to the graveyard and she cries she won’t bring him back. She was willing to go into jail and suffer for her bad sins, but maybe this relieved her and gave her a bitter peace. In one of the paragraphs the refrain is “She shot her man ‘cause he done her wrong.” Those few words tell us a basic definition of the truth. A few sentences down the ballad talks of Frankie’s life in jail, it mentions that she has no luxury in there. She says “there ain’t no good in a man. I had a man but he done me wrong.” Her punishment was to sit in the electric chair and she was waiting there restlessly to go and meet her god. The last few lines of the poem say “This story has no moral, this story has no end, this story only goes to show that there ain’t no good in men.”
This is similar to The Griesly Wife because in both ballads there is a couple in the start but, in the end there is only half of the jigsaw left. In both poems one of the two goes on the search for the other, and both poems end in a punishment, in this poem the electric chair is used and in The Griesly Wife, murder was involved.
The last ballad which I am going to compare is The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond. “Charlotte Dymond, a domestic servant aged eighteen, was murdered near Rowtor Ford on Bodwin Moor on Sunday 14 April 1844 by her young man: a crippled farm-hand, Mathew Weeks, aged twenty-two. A stone marks the spot.” These last sentences just written was the introduction of the poem, this may have been evidence shown in a newspaper article or a magazine which involved news. The poem gave us a head start as it revealed the purpose of the poem at the beginning.
The first few paragraphs described the crime scene and the day, this says it was a normal sunny day, but the victim not knowing a huge thunderstorm was slowly approaching. A similarity noticed here is that rhyme also is shown in every paragraph, in every two lines. Another sad thing noticed in the first paragraph is that it says the day was Sunday, for many Christians such as Charlotte Dymond is a day where rest is used and a visit to the local church happens, having a death on a Sunday is highly depressing for a Christian. A few paragraphs down, other techniques have been spotted, in stanza 4, her purse is repeatedly been mentioned, such as “In her purse was her pride.” Is this showing a sign of her cheating on him early on, is the poem asking rhetorical questions?
The ballad then tells us that she is walking alongside her lover. In paragraph 6, indications of murder were occurring. “Through the Sunday mist, never saw the razor, waiting at his wrist.” The mist was blocking her vision literally and figuratively, a good sentence from the poet. The next paragraph talks about what happened after the incident, but how the incident happen is not told, this makes the reader feel mysterious and spooked. The poet then uses similes and metaphors in the next 2-3 paragraphs; the purpose of them is to build tension in the readers mind. “Your face the colour of clay.” This brings a strong image of remorse and sorrow. In another line there is rhyme used in the same line, this is good use of rhyme as it turns pressure on your thoughts.
“Take me home cried Charlotte, I lie here in the pit.” This makes Charlotte’s voice come through and it breaks through the thread of silence which kept the poem to a low tone level. The screaming from Charlotte creates drama and the atmosphere would suddenly rise. “My naked neck is split.” This brings up a sexual image of Charlotte, but keeping in mind she is screaming, so this phrase is not used for pleasure. The paragraphs suddenly evolved and turned into sorrow monsters, many words symbolised her idealising in death. Style and personification held a cloud over the paragraphs and for a few paragraphs there was only those two techniques ruling. This is different from the other ballads as the other ballads flowed really well in similar emotions, such as The Griesly Wife, sorrow was filling the poem and only that was there, but in this poem happiness started the poem, but that happiness transformed into grief.
“As Mathew turned to Plymouth.” Mathew decided to make a move and escape from the prison, he thought he could be clever and run from the police, “The cold and cunning constable, Up to him did go:” In that sentence alliteration made sure we were back to reality, it released the ballad from the dream that personification and style were drawing. The poem says that Mathew was summoned in court and he backed up his victim and described her like natural imagery. “That round her neck I drew.” He said this in his explanation to the court. It says “The only sin upon her skin is that she loved another.” This was the reason why he decided to kill his beloved Charlotte. Another technique was then used called Oxymoron and here is how it was used “They sent him smartly up to heaven and dropped him down to hell.” In the last paragraph, the standard remained high as alliteration was produced, “Where stands the sacred snow.” & “And the salt sea-winds go.”
This poem was highly unique but again there were several similarities, in all the poems there was a man and woman but one of them got killed. Rhyme was used in every paragraph in all the poems. This is my personal opinion, the ballad that I really enjoyed reading was The Griesly wife as it was short and catchy and it seemed to be really straightforward, horror was used in the end of the poem and this became the heart of the poem, I liked the rhyme and it all did the job.
