All 4 Uses

ballad
in
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
(Auto-generated)

There were few printing presses in the New World and the boys soon made a fair living transcribing comedies for the theater, ballads for the crowds, and advertisements for the merchants.†
Chpt 3
I shall give him that old bent salad fork with the turquoise in it, and he will bring me a copy of the new ballad that everyone is singing about the d—q—a of Ol—v—s.†
Chpt 4 *
Now as he sat among the guitarists and watched this awkward girl singing ballads, imitating every inflection of the more experienced singers who had preceded her, the determination entered his mind to play Pygmalion.†
Chpt 4
They looked like figures that had strayed there from some remote country, or out of an old ballad, that had not yet learned the new language and had not yet found any friends.†
Chpt 4

Definitions:

(1) (ballad)
a song (or poem) that tells a story or expresses strong feelings -- typically slow in tempo
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)