“Lord Randall” is a Scottish ballad in the form of a narrative song. A narrative song is a song that depicts or tells a story. A ballad is unique for it directly tells a story and emphasizes climactic incidents. It strips away those details which are not important to the plot. The story of “Lord Randall” narrates about a man who has been poisoned by his lover. The story does not tell about the incident’s background nor is the audience aware why the man has been poisoned. The story just shows the man revealing that he has been poisoned, his statement of his last will and testament, and his curse on the lover who planned to kill him. The technique shown in this story is what we call the incremental repetition. The incremental repetition is usually observed in poetry of oral tradition wherein a line is repeated in a changed context or with minor changes in the repeated part.
