How is the ballad meter structured?

structure for a ballad is a quatrain, written in either abcb or abab rhyme schemes. The first and third lines are iambic tetrameter, with four beats per line; the second and fourth lines are in trimeter, with three beats per line.

In addition to consistent iambic form known as iambic tetrameter in poetic ballads with four lines each line maintains a fixed set of syllables. The first and third lines each contain eight syllables, while the second and fourth lines each contain six syllables.