An overview of English folk songs

Folk songs, that is, folk songs, are short narrative poems, which can be traced back to13rd century at the earliest, but especially flourished in15th century, and were later collected and published. The most famous collection of early published folk songs is1Bishop Percy in the second half of the 8th century. There are many opinions about the origin of folk songs, including collective creation and individual creation. Medieval folk songs are different from the original songs to vent their emotions. They need certain narrative skills to tell stories. It is generally believed that it may be compiled by civilian poets based on ready-made materials, and after several years of circulation, it is difficult to determine the specific creation age of folk songs. Folk songs have the nature of singing, the harmony of music, and some of them are related to folk dances (the word folk songs comes from the French word baller, which means "dancing").

Folk songs are short narrative poems with simple and dramatic plots. They are usually composed of a series of simple scenes or fragments of long stories, which are not straightforward and rarely described in detail and moralized. In form, folk customs are adopted, that is, four lines of verse, two or four rhymes, one or three lines of four steps, and two or four lines of three steps to enhance the musical effect.