Pigeons Nesting on My Stoop – A Ballad by Vaughan Jones

Pondering on all the poems and songs I have written, I came across this ballad I wrote a couple of years ago in response to a balladeer contest. Alarmingly, I have still not written the music for it. At first, I erroneously thought that this should be quite easy because of all my writing experience. I decided to read up a bit about the ballad form of poetry, finding the following definition.

“A ballad is a poem that tells a story, usually (but not always) in four-line stanzas called quatrains. The ballad form is enormously diverse, and poems in this form may have any one of hundreds of different rhyme schemes and meters. Nearly every culture on earth produces ballads, often in the form of epic poems”. The word ballad is derived from the Latin word “Ballare” which means, “dancing song.”

Once I had read this, I decided I would write a ballad with four-line stanzas, the first three rows rhyming, and the last row of each stanza rhyming with each stanza’s last row. I decided that the metering would be six syllables for the first three lines and four syllables for the fourth line of each verse, and ten syllables for the chorus.

Pigeons Nesting on My Stoop - By Vaughan Jones

It’s beautiful when nature touches you, 
join her in song, being one with her too.

Rock pigeons on my stoop,
a nesting spot to scoop,
‘neath a table they coop,
a fine new nest.

Male fetches twigs and sticks,
female prepares for chicks,
a fine home they do fix,
with lively jest.

In due time eggs are laid,
and much attention paid,
two little chicks displayed,
their utmost best.

Parents take turns to feed,
taking care of their breed.
at last the chicks are freed,
flying is their quest.

It’s beautiful when nature touches you,
join her in song, being one with her too.


 A friendly challenge to readers and fellow writers to write a ballad and send it to me. I also invite songwriters who feel like writing a song to the lyrics presented in my poem above, send a sample to me. I look forward to the interaction with you. My email address is onescribe1@gmail.com