A Western Ballad
A Western Ballad - form Summary
Refrain Creates Ritual Cadence
This poem uses the traditional ballad form with short, regular stanzas and a repeated refrain. The returning line When I died, love, when I died
anchors each stanza, creating an incantatory, elegiac cadence. Simple diction and compact imagery (heartbroken care, an endless maze, a war with an angel) provide forward movement while the refrain pulls the speaker back into a ritualized meditation on loss and passage.
When I died, love, when I died my heart was broken in your care; I never suffered love so fair as now I suffer and abide when I died, love, when I died. When I died, love, when I died I wearied in an endless maze that men have walked for centuries, as endless as the gate was wide when I died, love, when I died. When I died, love, when I died there was a war in the upper air: all that happens, happens there; there was an angel by my side when I died, love, when I died.
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