A ballad poem is a poem or song narrating a story in short stanzas. It is a popular narrative song passed down orally. In the English tradition, it usually follows a form of rhymed (abcb) quatrains alternating four-stress and three-stress lines. Folk (or traditional) ballads are anonymous and recount tragic, comic, or heroic stories with emphasis on a central dramatic event.
ANSWER: a long, melodious poem that narrates a story