Folklore: Take warning verse

Subject: Folklore: Take warning verse
From: IC Keith
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 12:18 PM

Many folk songs end with a verse that tells others to take warning and learn a lesson from the narrator's experience. Often, the narrator is dying or about to die. Is there a commonly accepted generic term for this verse?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Take warning verse
From: Deckman
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:09 PM

I always call it the "morality verse."

Subject: RE: Folklore: Take warning verse
From: doc.tom
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 01:52 PM

When the whole song is going to end the narrator up on the gallows - and invariably ends with a warning verse - it's often referred to as a 'goodnight ballad'!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Take warning verse
From: Deckman
Date: 09 Jul 11 - 02:39 PM

I've always enjoyed the last verse of the American ballad "Billy The Kid":

"THERE'S MANY A MAN, WITH A FACE FINE AND FAIR,
WHO STARTS OUT IN LIFE, WITH A CHANCE TO GO SQUARE,
BUT JUST LIKE POOR BILLY, HE WANDERS ASTRAY,
AND LOSES HIS LIFE, IN THE VERY SAME WAY!" (let THAT be a lesson to you).

bob(deckman)nelson