Here is a collection of some well known ballads or story poems. Most are
somewhat long, but are quite satisfying to memorize and easier than
you might think.
Paul Revere's Ride and
Casey at the Bat
are two well known classics. We have noted a couple by
Robert Service,
but he has a great number of poems that fit the subject of Story Telling.
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How They Brought The Good News From Ghent To Aix
by Robert Browning
a valorous ride saves Aix from an unknown fate
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Lord Ullin's Daughter
by Thomas Campbell
a woman and her lover flee her father's wrath
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Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll
a young man defeats a fearsome beast
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The Hunting of the Snark
by Lewis Carroll
an unlikely cadre team-up in search of the elusive snark
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The Leak in the Dike
by Phoebe Cary
a boy's heroic deed saves Holland from the encroachment of the sea
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The Face on the Barroom Floor
by Hugh Antoine D'Arcy
a vagabond sketches the face that drove him mad
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The Loss of the Birkenhead
by Sir Francis Doyle
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Agincourt
by Michael Drayton
King Henry and his company defeat the French, though outnumbered 10 to 1
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The Yarn of the 'Nancy Bell'
by W.S. Gilbert
rather on the gross side
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John Burns of Gettysburg
by Bret Harte
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Jim Bludso of the Prairie Belle
by John Hay
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The Green Eye of the Yellow God
by J. Milton Hayes
beware the vengance of the little yellow god
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The Eve of St. Agnes
by John Keats
a gothic tale of thwarted young love
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La Belle Dame Sans Merci
by John Keats
a knight waits on a cold hill-side for the aparition that has seduced him
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Gunga Din
by Rudyard Kipling
this regimental water boy is a better man that most
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Edgehill Fight
by Rudyard Kipling
the English Civil War pits neighbor against neighbor
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The Owl and the Pussy-Cat
by Edward Lear
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat
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The Wreck of the Hesperus
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
best be cautious, not proud, in dealing with the sea
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Paul Revere's Ride
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
the inspired telling of one of America most memorable historic events
Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere
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A Visit From St. Nicholas
by Clement C. Moore
'Twas the night before Christmas
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The Defence of Guenevere
by William Morris
Guenevere defends herself and Lancelot before King Arthur's court
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The King of Denmark's Ride
by Caroline Norton
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The Highwayman
by Alfred Noyes
Bess must warn her lover before the redcoats shoot him down
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The Man from Snowy River
by Andrew Barton Paterson
an unassuming mountain horseman rounds-up a wayward herd of wild bush horses
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Mulga Bill's Bicycle
by Andrew Barton Paterson
Mugla Bill claims to be able to ride anything, but can he?
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The Raven
by Edgar Allen Poe
an eerie tale of an anguished man haunted by the memory of his lost love
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The Shooting of Dan McGrew
by Robert W. Service
a stranger gives dangerous Dan his just desserts
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The Cremation of Sam McGee
by Robert W. Service
There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who toil for gold.
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The Lifeboat
by George R. Sims
We launched the boat in the tempest, though death was the goal in view
And never a one but doubted if the craft could live it through;
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Charge of the Light Brigade
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
perhaps the best known verse on war
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die:
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Casey at the Bat
by Ernest L. Thayer
the big game depends on Casey
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The Song of Wandering Aengus
by William Butler Yeats
Subject - Story Telling