Main message

• Bitter conflict between the speaker and the Lord and the speaker’s Cousin Kate. Basic conflict is as the Lord’s betrayal. However it is also about inequality of gender and class inequality- speaker comes from a cottage, whereas Lord comes from an estate.
• Bitter Ballad shows the anger and rage that can come from rejection of love and failure of relationships, reveals gender inequality, revenge and sexual hypocrisy (society judges the speaker and not the Lord- attitude to male and female sexuality).
• This is a narrative poem that tells the story of two cousins who fall in love with a Lord. The Lord rejects the speaker in favour of her cousin, but it is revealed that the speaker has a son, and the cousin does not.