The Ballad of the White Horse (Annotated)

Differentiated book- It has a historical context with research of the time-The Ballad of the White Horse is a poem by GK Chesterton on the idealized exploits of the Saxon King Alfred the Great, published in 1911. Written in ballad form, the work has been described as one of the last great traditional epic poems ever written in The Language English. The poem tells how Alfred was able to defeat the invading Danes at the Battle of Ethandun with the help of the Virgin Mary. The poem consists of 2,684 lines of verse in English. They are divided into stanzas, which generally consist of 4 to 6 lines each. The poem is based on the form of the ballad's stanza, although the poem often departs significantly from it. Metric foot types are used more or less freely, although there is often a basic repeat on one line. The rhyme scheme varies, often it is ABCB or ABCCCB.Chesterton begins his work with a note (in prose) stating that the poem is not historical. He says he has chosen to place the Battle of Ethandune site in the Valley of the White Horse, despite a lack of concrete evidence for this location (many scholars now believe it was probably fought in Edington, Wiltshire). He says he has chosen to include legends about Alfred, even if they are historically unlikely.