Burning Bacon and the Mississippi Fantasy

I couldn’t help but pick up on the repetitious use of fantasy language, starting with the first stanza:

Herself: the milk-white maid, the "maid mild"

Of the ballad. Pursued

By the Dark Villain. Rescued by the Fine Prince.

The Happiness-Ever-After.

That was worth anything. 10

It was good to be a "maid mild."

That made the breath go fast.  &etc.

After realizing what was going I reread the poem and instead of reading it like a ballad, I found myself reading it as if it were fairytale and the story came a bit more alive, though this genre seems to complicate the general theme and historical allusion (Emmett Till 1953) because fairytales and fantasy generally end happily while this poem .

. . . But there was something about the matter of the Dark Villain.

He should have been older, perhaps.

The hacking down of a villain was more fun to think about 20

When his menace possessed undisputed breath, undisputed height,

And best of all, when history was cluttered

With the bones of many eaten knights and princesses.

Though the fantasy language is maintained throughout the poem, at this point is when the speaker begins questioning the actions of her husband, becoming suspicious of whether HE is really a Fine Prince or not. 

I am curious if this fantasy-esque poem (ballad) is at all a species of the southern gothic tradition of poetry, after all this poem is fairly dark considering the circumstances and the fantasy language sort of romanticizes the female speaker's situation. eh.. 

Thoughts?