Here are the basic guidelines:

• 28 lines
• three stanzas of eight lines followed by a quatrain (or four-line stanza) called an envoy (or envoi)
• rhyme scheme: ababbcbC/ababbcbC/ababbcbC/bcbC
• final line of each stanza is a refrain
• each line is usually comprised of eight or 10 syllables (flexible, but consistent within the poem)

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©✍️RobertLeeBrewer

The Ballad is also written in quatrains with either a rhyming scheme: abab
or as in John Keats, 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' with the scheme: abcb.

In Edgar Allen Poe's, 'The Ballad of Annabelle Lee' he adopts a different style but maintains rhyme and repeats.

©✍️CarolynCrossley