Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 1

Knowledgebase

The ballad you are going to read here is called Lord Ullin’s Daughter. It was first draftedby a man called Thomas Campbell in 1795 after he visited the island of Mullin Argyllshire, Scotland.

1. Read the summary of the story. Is it a sad or a happy tale?

SummaryA young couple are running away to marry. The girl’s father, Lord Ullin, is in hotpursuit on horseback, accompanied by other horsemen. Despite the terribleweather, the young couple intend to escape by boat over Lochgyle. The young man(who is referred to as “chief of Ulva’s isle”) asks a boatman to take them acrossthe loch. The boatman agrees to go, against his better judgement.As the boat leaves the shore in a terrible storm, Lord Ullin arrives, only to seethe boat sink and his daughter and her lover die by drowning. Lord Ullin calls outthat he will forgive them if they return to shore but it is already too late.

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Section 3

In More Detail - Learning about Petry - Ballad

First reading 2. Now listen to and read the ballad.

a. Distinguish the direct speech from the narration.

b. For the direct speech, decide who is speaking in each case.

A chieftain1, to the Highlands bound2,Cries, “Boatman, do not tarry3!And I’ll give thee a silver pound,To row us o’er the ferry.”

“Now who be ye4, would cross Lochgyle,This dark and stormy water?”“O, I’m the chief of Ulva’s isle,And this Lord Ullin’s daughter.

T 27ThomasCampbell

Lord Ullin’sDaughter(1795,pub. 1809)

1. cchhiieeffttaaiinn:: the head of a clanin Scotland.

2. ttoo …… bboouunndd:: going in the

direction of (viaggiandoverso).

3. ddoo nnoott ttaarrrryy:: hurry up

(affrettati).4. wwhhoo bbee yyee:: old Scottish for

‘who are you’.

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Thomas CampbellLord Ullin’s Daughter

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“And fast before her father’s menThree days we’ve fled5 together,For should he find us in the glen6,My blood would stain the heather7.

“His horsemen hard behind us ride;Should they our steps discover,Then who will cheer my bonny bride8

When they have slain9 her lover?”

Out spoke the hardy Highland wight10,“I’ll go, my chief — I’m ready;It is not for your silver bright,But for your winsome11 lady:

“And by my word! the bonny birdIn danger shall not tarry;So though the waves are raging white,I’ll row you o’er the ferry.”

By this the storm grew loud apace,The water-wraith was shrieking12;And in the scowl13 of heaven each faceGrew dark as they were speaking.

But still as wilder blew the wind,And as the night grew drearer14,Adown the glen rode armed men,Their trampling sounded nearer.

“O haste thee15, haste!” the lady cries,“Though tempests round us gather;I’ll meet the raging of the skies,But not an angry father.”

The boat had left a stormy land,A stormy sea before her, — When, O! too strong for human hand,The tempest gather’d o’er her16.

And still they row’d17 amidst the roarOf waters fast prevailing:Lord Ullin reach’d that fatal shore,His wrath was changed to wailing18.

Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 2

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� “Boatman, do not tarry!”, illustration forLord Ullin’s Daughter by Herbert N. Rudeen(in Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6, byCharles H. Sylvester, Chicago, Bellows-ReeveCompany Publishers, 1922).

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5. fflleedd:: escaped (siamofuggiti).

6. gglleenn:: Scottish for ‘valley’.7. hheeaatthheerr:: a moorland plant

(erica).8. bboonnnnyy bbrriiddee:: beautiful wife

to be (bella sposa).9. ssllaaiinn:: killed (ucciso).10. tthhee hhaarrddyy HHiigghhllaanndd wwiigghhtt::

here it refers to theboatman (il tipo robustodelle Highlands).

11. wwiinnssoommee:: beautiful (bella).12. TThhee wwaatteerr--wwrraaiitthh wwaass

sshhrriieekkiinngg:: the demon ofthe loch was screaming(urlava il mostro delleacque).

13. ssccoowwll:: dark, angry face (ilvolto scuro e arrabbiato).

14. ddrreeaarreerr:: darker (piùscura).

15. hhaassttee tthheeee:: hurry up(affrettati).

16. ggaatthheerr’’dd oo’’eerr hheerr:: metabove her (si accumulòsopra la barca).

17. rrooww’’dd:: used the oars(remavano).

18. HHiiss wwrraatthh wwaass cchhaannggeedd ttoowwaaiilliinngg:: his anger becamecrying (la sua rabbiadiventò un lamento).

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3. Where in the ballad does it say the following? Find the line references and answerthe additional question.

a. (lines ________ ) The young chief offers the boatman money. How much exactly?

b. (lines ________ ) The lovers have been on the run for days. How many days exactly?

c. (lines ________ ) Lord Ullin will take his revenge if he catches them. How will he take

his revenge?

d. (lines ________ ) The boatman agrees to go but not for the money. What is the reason

why the boatman agrees?

e. (lines ________ ) When they hear the sound of approaching horsemen, it is the girl

who insists that they leave immediately. What does she say she

cannot face?

f. (lines ________ ) When she realises the boat is going to sink, the girl appeals to her

father. What does she say or do exactly?

In more detail

Content

For sore dismay’d19 through storm and shade,His child he did discover: — One lovely hand she stretch’d for aid,And one was round her lover.

“Come back! come back!” he cried in grief20,“Across this stormy water:And I’ll forgive your Highland chief,My daughter! — O my daughter!

’Twas vain21: the loud waves lash’d22 the shore,Return or aid preventing;The waters wild went o’er his child,And he was left lamenting.

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19. ssoorree ddiissmmaayy’’dd:: veryupset(profondamente

sconvolto).20. ggrriieeff:: sadness and

pain (dolore).

21. ’’TTwwaass vvaaiinn:: it wasof no use (nonserviva a nulla).

22. llaasshh’’dd:: beat(colpivano).

4. Describe the form of the poem by making notes below:

a. no. of stanzas: __________________________________________________________________________

b. no. of lines per stanza: __________________________________________________________________________

c. line length: __________________________________________________________________________

d. end-stopping: __________________________________________________________________________

5. Focus on language.Which of these words and phrases would you use to describe the language of the poem?

Form and language

�� elaborate

�� narrative

�� simple

�� lyrical

�� vague

�� graphic

�� full of exclamations

�� ornate

�� dramatic

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7. Look at the main stresses in stanza 1.

a. How many stresses are there in each line?

A chieftain, to the Highlands bound,

Cries, “Boatman, do not tarry!

And I’ll give thee a silver pound

To row us o’er the ferry!” —

b. Which of these statements is true? The poem alternates …

�� a. … lines of pentameter and tetrameter.

�� b. … lines of tetrameter and trimeter.

�� c. … lines of trimeter and dimeter.

c. Can you identify the same stress pattern in other stanzas of the poem?

8. Repetition is an important feature of this poem.

a. Find an example of each type of repetition.

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Type Examples

repetition of phrases

anaphor

alliteration

consonance

assonance

b. What is the effect of the repetition? Tick the statements you agree with.

�� a. It makes the poem more musical.

�� b. It makes the words easier to remember.

�� c. It highlights important words and phrases.

�� d. It makes the poem boring and predictable.

Standard forms 9. Here is a checklist of the main features of the standard form known as thetraditional or folk ballad. Which features can you link to the ballad Lord Ullin’s Daughter?

�� a. The authors of ballads are anonymous (usually minstrels and troubadours) and theirnarrators are impersonal.

�� b. They were handed down orally and changed as they passed from person to person andfrom country to country. They were generally not written down until the 18th century.

�� c. Ballads are meant for performance, with or without musical accompaniment, and sothey contain many sound features, especially repetition, which make them musicaland memorable.

�� d. A key feature of ballads is their simplicity. The storyline is simple, often tragic, andfocuses on action. There are no descriptive passages. The characters arestraightforward and are not psychologically complex. The language is lexically andsyntactically simple and contains stock phrases or formulae and codes whichaudiences immediately recognise.

�� e. The traditional ballad stanza is a quatrain and usually alternates lines of tetrameterand trimeter (4-3-4-3 stress pattern). Different rhyme schemes are present but themost common are abab and abcb.

�� f. Predominant themes of ballad stories are tragic ones of love, death, revenge,betrayal, conflict.

Sound features

Read the biography and find out how the text and the author’s life are linked.

Campbell, Thomas (1777-1844)

Thomas Campbell was born in Glasgow, Scotland in1777. He was educated at Glasgow High School and theUniversity of Glasgow where he won prizes for classicsand for poetry. During the holidays he worked as a tutorin the western Highlands and his poem Glenara and theballad of Lord Ullin’s Daughter were both written after avisit to Mull at that time. He became famous for his poemThe Pleasures of Hope which dealt with popular issuesof the time such as the French Revolution, the partitionof Poland and slavery. He travelled in Germanybefore returning to Scotland and then settling inLondon. He continued writing and travellingand was then elected Lord Rector ofGlasgow University in 1826. His family lifesuffered a series of sad events —Campbell’s wife died in 1828, one of histwo sons died and the other becameinsane. Campbell’s health suffered, too,and he withdrew from public life. He died in 1844.

Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 5

� Scottish School, Portrait of Thomas Campbell, 1815, engraving (Private Collection).

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agrees to go, against his better judgement.

As the boat leaves the shore in a terrible ,

Lord Ullin arrives, only to see the boat and

his daughter and her lover die by drowning.

Lord Ullin calls out that he will them

if they return to shore but it is already too late.

The poem has many typical aspects of the

traditional ballad. It is in with

alternating lines of tetrameter and and

an abab rhyme scheme. It is regular and musical,

the musicality being reinforced by .

Its language makes use of both narration and

dialogue, it is simple, and dramatic and

makes frequent use of exclamations to add to its

drama. The story, which deals with the theme of

and death, has a very tragic ending in which

we see the repentant father the loss

of his beloved daughter.

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(14)

(13)

(12)

(11)

(10)

(9)

(8)

(7)

Lord Ullin’s Daughter is a literary

ballad, that is to say it is part of the

body of ballads that were not of the

oral tradition, but which were

down in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Its author is known to be Thomas

Campbell and it was inspired by a trip

Campbell made to the in

1795. The ballad was then revised and

finally published in 1809.

Its tragic story tells of a young

who are running away to marry in the

Highlands. The girl’s father, Lord Ullin,

has been in pursuit of them for

days. The couple are sure that,

if they are caught, the young chieftan will be

by the Lord and his men. Despite the

terrible weather, the young couple ask a boatman

to take them across the . The boatman(6)

(5)

(4)

(3)

(2)

(1)

Fill in the gaps in the texts by using the words provided.

Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 6

coupleforgivegraphicIsle of Mullkilledlamentinglochlovequatrainsrepetitionsinkstormthreetrimeterwritten

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