balled of worldly wealth

The Ballad of Worldly Wealth is a depiction of how money can bring pride and corruption into a society. The subject of this poem is about money. In this poem, the author describes all about money and what it meant to people. The tone of this poem is an overall negative feeling that the author has about money and how he feels that only sometimes money can be good but mostly it causes evil. The speaker of the poem is the author and it seems like the audience are maybe people in his town. It seems as if he is watching the affects of money and people lusting over money and buying lots of expensive things just for the sake of appearances. The setting of the poem seems to be in a small town sometime in the 1800 -1900’s. The form of this poem is a ballad, which is a narrative poem often of folk origin and intended to be sung, consisting of simple stanzas and usually having a refrain. The poem is saying that money could either be good or evil and it depends on how you use it and how you appreciate it. It may cause goodness; or sometimes it might just cause sin.

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The people in this poem are merchants, soldiers, captains, priests and maybe some other people in this town. The main idea of this poem is money and how people only do things for money and then turn greedy with it. For example, a priest should teach about religion for people’s salvation, not just because he wants the money. Soldiers should be fighting because they want to defend their country and not just to get the money.
Although some soldiers may have been fighting to protect their country and for their freedom, the author feels it was mostly for the money and the advantages that money can bring for them. He is saying that most people lust over money and have no cares because they can buy whatever they want.

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There are a few rhetorical patterns in this poem such as “taketh” and “maketh,”
“to throw,” “can stow,” and “fro,” “without a blow” and “ebb and flow.” He also uses a
lot