Ballade of Worldly Wealth Explicitation
It is said that people who want money will never get enough of money. This poem, “Ballade of Worldly Wealth” is about money, and how in the end it is the core of evil. Andrew Lang-the author- wrote this ballad as if he were a Roman Catholic church man in the 14th century. In reality, he is a clergyman who wrote this poem in the late 1800s. The subject of the poem was money, and Lang was addressing the public. The poem is a analytical, judgmental, and truthful view of our world.
The poem is a didactic one, and the tone/mood was negative and sad. The form of the poem is a ballad which has eight lines in each stanza, and there are three stanzas in total. The lines are organized in a ABABBCBC fashion,…show more content… With parallel construction, there is a pattern where each of the endings end with the vowel sounds "all","ow", or "ice". The “all” sounds is present in lines 1,3,9,11,17 and 19 with words such as: wall, all, festival, tall, stall and Cardinal. For sentences 6,8,14,16,22,and 24 the sound "ow" is present in the words blow, flow, show, low, snow, etc. And for lines 2,4,5,7,10,12,13,15,18,20,21, and 23 the sound "ice" is present at the end with endings lies, eye, and Paradise. So this is the pattern ABABBCBC, or vowel pattern "all","ow","all","ow","ow","ice,""ow","ice". And within this pattern, there is rhetoric pattern where every other line rhymes. For instance, “Money wins the priest his stall...Red hats for the Cardinal.” (Lang) This pattern creates rhythm and meter within the poem to make it sound smooth on the…show more content… The poem is trying to get people to stop thinking about the materialistic things in life and start thinking about spiritual accumulation. The phrase that is repeated: " These alone can ne'er bestow Peace, and health, and Paradise" mean that materialistic things cannot bring people anyone of those things, including paradise which is referring to the afterlife. The poem can be interpreted two lines at a time. The first lines goes "Money taketh town and wall, Fort and ramp without a blow". These two lines are talking about how it only takes a little bribe and no fighting or no "blow" to take over cities, towns, and other settlements. Next, "While the tides shall ebb and flow, Money maketh Evil show". That means that money has the power to persuade a man to go out sailing across the world looking for treasure. Furthermore, there is a semicolon and "Money maketh Evil show Like the Good, and truth like lies: These alone can ne'er bestow Youth, and health, and Paradise." In that sentence Lang is saying that money has the ability to make a mans true colors shine. In the second stanza it goes: "Money maketh festival, Wine she buys, and beds can strow..." So money can buy alcohol and fun and a place to sleep afterwards. Then: Round the necks of captains tall, Money wins them chains to throw". These lines actually connect with the follow two which are: Marches soldiers two and fro, Gaineth ladies with sweet eyes."