Edward Edward

Edward, Edward is a ballad written in the seventeenth century. Edward, Edward tells the story of a man called Edward who has killed his father because he wants all of his father’s riches and is having a conversation with his mother about it. The ballad was a popular form of entertainment in the seventeenth century as people to sing them to remember them. A ballad is mostly a conversation between two people like Edward, Edward. Also Edward, Edward is written in first person and is told from Edward and his mother’s point of view.

The themes of the poem Edward, Edward are death we see this when Edward says ‘o I have killed my father dear mother, mother’ the fact that Edward has killed his father shows that one of the themes is gore/death, another one of the themes is greed we see this when Edwards mum says
‘and what will ye leave your own mother dear’ the fact that Edwards mother is asking what she will have from his father’s riches shows greed/selfish.

The atmosphere of the poem is quite dark we see this when Edward says
‘the curse of hell from me shall ye bear mother, mother’ this shows Edward doesn’t care about his mother and wants his mother to have a bad life, hell suggests condemned souls and devils in some religions it also suggests the place of eternal punishment for the wicked after death.
The use of repetition and rhyme in the poem is very good, the use of repetition is all of the way through the poem and the first and third line is repeated in every stanza, we see repetition when Edward says
‘ill set foot in yonder boat mother, mother ill set foot in yonder boat and ill fare o’ er the sea, o’ as you can see the first and third line are exactly the same. The effect that repetition gives this poem is it makes the pace of the poem much quicker as the repetition is used so well and accurate, and also the rhythm is used very well as well, although there isn’t a lot of rhyme it still makes it a very good poem.

The imagery of the poem is quite disturbing because when i read Edward, Edward I see a horrible, selfish man who doesn’t care about his family and even kills his own father just for his riches, we see a disturbing image when Edward says ‘the curse of hell from me shall ye bear’ the word hell makes me disturbed because it makes me think of the place of eternal punishment for the wicked after death.

In the poem there are four lines in each stanza and there are fourteen stanzas, the structure of the poem is quite rigid which suggests that the poem is set out the same way all the way through the poem the repetition in the poem makes the pace quick like the narrators heartbeat when he is talking about when Edward kills his father the poem then slows down and speeds up. I think this poem is a very good poem and uses a lot of repetition.