Barbara Allen: Questions

Study Questions on "Barbara Allen"

Provoders: Kate Liu / ;Raphael Schulte /

song version 1, version 2 "'Barbara Allen' (Child #84) is perhaps the most widely-spread of all Child's ballads. It goes back a long way -- Pepys wrote of hearing it sung in 1666 -- but our earliest versions of the text date to the mid-eighteenth century and the music can't even be traced back that far' (from Early Child Ballads) . There are many, many versions of this poem, including versions from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and the United States. Three Versions:

• Child #84 (diifferent from the Norton Anthology version)
• E-text of American folksong ( two versions) Another version (similar to the Norton Anthology version)

Questions for Group Discussion and Journal

1. Why does Sir John Graeme get sick and then die for Barbara Allan? When Barbara Allen says that he once ignored her, what is his reaction? What does that show about him?
2. What kind of person is Barbara Allen? (pay attention to the ways she treats Sir John Graeme: telling him that he is dying, leaving him before he dies, and then dying for him after he does.)
3. The ballad does not explicitly describe Barbara Allen as being cruel, but it implies it. Identify places in the poem that reveal her hard-heartedness.
4. Barbara seems to experience a change in the poem. At what point does she change? How are those changes implied?

(external) English Literature I: the Medieval Period;Introduction to Literature, Spring 1999 (Ray);Introduction to Literature: Society and Identity (Kate)