“Lord Randall” and
“Get Up & Bar the Door”
Ballads
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Ballads
• A song or songlike poem that tells a story in a regular pattern of rhythm and rhyme and uses simple, direct language.
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Characteristics
• Sensational or tragic subject matter
– Domestic tragedy
– False love
– True love
– The absurdity of husband-wife relationships
– The supernatural
• Omitted details
• Supernatural events
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Characteristics
• Refrain
• A repeated word, line or group of lines
• Incremental Repetition
• A phrase or sentence is repeated with a new element added each time until the climax is reached in order to build up suspense.
• Question-and answer format
• The facts of the story are gradually presented in this format in order to build suspense.
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

“Lord Randall”
• Structure
– Question and answer format between Lord
Randall’s mother and Lord Randall
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Question/Answer #1
• Where have you been?
• I have been in the woods hunting.
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Question/Answer #2
• Where did you eat your dinner?
• I ate with my true love.
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Question/Answer #3
• What did you eat for dinner?
• I ate eels boiled in broth.
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Question/Answer #4
• What happened to your bloodhounds?
• They swelled up and died.
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Final Stanza
• Functions as conclusion
• His mother concludes he has been poisoned.
• Lord Randall agrees
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Symbolism: The Bed
• “…mother, make my bed soon,/ For I’m weary wi’ hunting, and fain wald lie down.”
• These lines end the first three stanzas
• “…mother, make my bed soon,/ For I’m sick at the heart, and I fain wald lie down.”
• Ends the fourth stanza
• The bed symbolizes his death bed
• He has been poisoned by his true love
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Symbolism: The Eels
• Most likely, this is what has been poisoned
• Eels are the most snakelike of fish
• Snakes symbolize evil
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Variations
• “Lord Randall” is supposed to have 103 known variations.
• Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

“Get Up and Bar the Door”
– Setting
• Around Martinmas time (the feast of Saint
Martin of Tours)
– November 11
– Usually celebrated with a big feast
– Much like our modern holidays
» A lot of work needs to be done around the house
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Conflict
• The door needs to be barred
• The husband wants the wife to do it
• The wife wants the husband to do it
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Conflict: Conclusion
• “They made a paction tween them twa,
They made it firm and sure,
That the first word whaeer should speak,
Should rise and bar the door.”
• The first person to speak has to go and lock the door
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Characterization
• Stubborn
• Silly
• Theme
– Battle of the sexes
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Plot
• Two men come into the house and eat all the food
• Neither the husband nor the wife say anything because they do not want to lose the wager
• The two intruders then decide to cut off the man’s beard and kiss the wife
• The man finally responds:
• “Will ye kiss my wife before my een
And scad me wi pudding-bree?”
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"

Plot
• The woman responds after the man:
• “Goodman, you’ve spoken the foremost word,
Get up and bar the door.”
• Humorous ending
• Her priority is winning the bet.
Geschke/English III
"Lord Randall" & "Get Up & Bar the
Door"