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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What survives when a song has no page to call home, only the memory of those who sing it?
Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England gathers verse passed from voice to voice by country people. Outlaws defy the powerful, lovers face separation, and soldiers and sailors leave home. Alongside their stories come seasonal songs and working songs, rooted in farm kitchens, fairs, alehouses, and the rhythms of rural life.
In this collection edited by James Henry Dixon and Robert Bell, rural England speaks through stories and songs. These narrative ballads tell stories in simple stanzas, with strong beats and refrains that help words stay in memory. Their plain language brings you close to people facing separation, challenging power, or setting out for war and sea.
What you’ll discover
- Songs carried by memory Meet verses country people learn by ear and share at work, festivals, and home.
- Outlaws against the powerful Follow ballads of defiance, where outlaws challenge those who hold power.
- Lovers, soldiers, and sailors Find plain stories of parted lovers and men who go to war or sea.
- The rural year's rhythms Explore seasonal and working songs woven into the daily lives of country people.
- Verse worth reading aloud Feel the steady beats, repeated lines, and rhymes that keep these stories moving.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy folk song, old broadsides, country customs or a good story told in a refrain. It suits anyone curious how ordinary people sang about work, love, drink and death.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Ordinary voices kept the songs alive
- Honesty matters more than wealth
- Death refuses every offered bargain
- Farm work deserves public respect
- Love puts social rank on trial
- Ballads give danger a human voice
- Laughter brings proud people down
- Shared songs mark the changing year
- The singers connect the whole collection
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Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England
by Robert Bell (editor); James Henry Dixon (editor)
A blind beggar pours out three thousand pounds in gold coins to win his daughter a knight.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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In short
Who would pin a poem about Death to a cottage wall, or sing a ballad about a beggar who drops three thousand pounds in gold? Ordinary English country people did, and this book shows what they hung up, sang and chanted.
Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 25 min3 h 30 min fast, 5 h 15 min slow
- Length
- 62,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Ordinary singers kept these songs alive
The editors took these songs from oral recitations, private manuscripts, rare broadsides and scarce chapbooks. Many sheets were printed in black letter, the heavy old type of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Short notes open many pieces. A woman in Bermondsey gave them The Bold Pedlar from her grandmother's memory. An old blind fiddler gave them Richard of Taunton Dean. A young Romani girl gave them the death of Queen Jane, though she could not remember all of it.
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Cite this edition
Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-poems-ballads-and-songs-of-the-peasantry-of-england.
Ancient poems, ballads, and songs of the peasantry of England. (2026). Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-poems-ballads-and-songs-of-the-peasantry-of-england
Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-poems-ballads-and-songs-of-the-peasantry-of-england.
@book{anonymous2026ancient,
title = {Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/ancient-poems-ballads-and-songs-of-the-peasantry-of-england}
}
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What is Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England about?
It is a collection of English folk verse: moral poems, story ballads, comic songs, work songs and festival songs. The editors gathered them from old singers, manuscripts and printed sources, adding notes to many of the pieces.
Who collected the poems in this book?
James Henry Dixon made the first collection, and Robert Bell revised and enlarged it in the middle of the nineteenth century. Most of the songs themselves have no known author and come from country singers.
What is a broadside, and why does it matter here?
A broadside is a single sheet printed with a ballad, often with a rough woodcut, and sold cheaply. Many of these songs survive only because printers set them on broadsides that people pinned up at home.
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