Poetry and Worldly Wealth

Taylor Fromm
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In the poem “Ballade of Worldly Wealth,” the author, Andrew Lang describes the truth about money and what it meant to people in the 1800s and 1900s. He uses repetition to clearly explain his ideas. Lang believes that money could either be good or it could be evil, I guess it all depends in how you use it and appreciate it. The people in this poem are priests, soldiers, captains etc. The main idea is about how some and most people only do things for money. The “Ballad of Worldly Wealth,” is a depiction of how money can bring pride and corruption into our society. The form of this poem is a ballad. A ballad's contents include 3 stanzas, at least 8 lines in each stanza, and a refrain (a repeated phrase at the end point of a poem) a refrain in example of the Ballad of Worldly Wealth is “Youth, and health, and Paradise” The author used artificial imagery to characterize money as both a staple in society, and as the icon of the world's power and corruption. There is several rhetoric patterns found in the poem. The rhyme pattern is an End rhyme. Poems with end rhyme are those whose last word of every line ends with a word that rhymes, for example: “While the tides shall ebb and (flow); Money maketh Evil (show)” Flow and show are two separate words, however both have rhyming sounds. Also displayed is parallel construction, a sentence, idea or clause that is presented with an opposing idea. In this statement, “Money moves the merchants all, While the tides shall ebb and flow; Money maketh Evil show, Like the Good, and Truth like lies” it can be seen that the opposition is of that money is what makes the world go round. However money also creates greed, and makes the people see the money as a good thing, when really it's all a lie.