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Ballad of Birmingham

             Dudley Randall's "Ballad of Birmingham" describes the events of one mother's tragedy. It tells the story of what happened in Birmingham. The "Ballad of Birmingham" refers to the day in 1963 when four black children were killed when the 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed.
             This poem is a literary ballad. It has a rhyme scheme of abcb defe. There are two speakers in the poem both the mother and daughter. Through conversation we can get a sense of what the speakers are thinking and feeling. .
             In this poem a little girl asks her mother if she can go and march for freedom in the streets of Birmingham. Her mother told her she couldn't because, "the dogs are fierce an wild, and clubs and hoses, guns and jails, aren't good for children." The girl insists on going but her mother will not let her. Her mother tells her she should go to church and sing in the choir instead. The daughter goes and her mother smiles because she knows she is in a sacred place. The mother hears an explosion; she races through the streets to the church were all she found was the shoe her daughter wore. .
             This poem has a strange irony to it. A mother tells her daughters she cannot go and protest for it is too dangerous. She tells her to go to church instead and sing in the choir. Little does she know something so tragic as a bombing could happen at a place that is suppose to be so sacred. The ironic part is the daughter would have been safer marching the streets, but her mother did not want her to go because she thought is was dangerous. .
             In conclusion, I thought this poem was very good. I liked the way the author told the story through conversation. It described very well what was happening. We can get a sense of what seems to be a good is not always so. Sometimes what we think may be a better choice may not be true. .
            


Essays Related to Ballad of Birmingham

1. Ballad of Birmingham

First, the titles of "The Whipping" and "Ballad of Birmingham" are different and contribute to differentiate the purposes of the poem. ... In comparison, "The Whipping" title is different than "Ballad of Birmingham" title. "Ballad of Birmingham" sounds lively and happy. ... Secondly, the settings of "The Whipping" and "Ballad of Birmingham" are different and contribute to differentiate the purposes of the poem. "The Whipping" is set at outside and "Ballad of Birmingham" is set at the church most of the time. ...

  • Word Count: 883
  • Approx Pages: 4

2. Ballad of Birmingham

In the following works of poetry, Randall's "Ballad of Birmingham," the essence of these tragedies has been justified with timeless emotion and historical facts. Randall's "Ballad of Birmingham" represents actual events that reveal a particular emotions as well as grief. The poem begins as a young girl asks her mother for permission to march the streets of Birmingham in a Freedom March. ... This particular event creates many emotions and thoughts that are effectively portrayed in Randall's poem, "Ballad of Birmingham." ... The poem, "Ballad of Birmingham," portrays the obviou...

  • Word Count: 502
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Ballad Of Birmingham

A Childs Safety The "Ballad of Birmingham" wrote by Dudley Randall was about a church that was bombed in 1963. This ballad was wrote by an African American man who was forty-nine years old when the bombing occurred. This ballad features irony, symbolism, and discrimination. ... The symbolism is represented throughout the ballad in different ways. ... This ballad contains a lot of words that can touch the heart of anyone and any race. ...

  • Word Count: 483
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

My first response to the poem "Ballad of Birmingham," by Dudley Randall, was that it was very tragic and heartbreaking as the poem expresses the worries and fear that the mother has for her little girl. ... " Both the poem and the newspaper article address the bombing in Birmingham, but in different ways. ... However, the daughter's tone is that of being upset, for example, "But, mother, I won't be alone, other children will go with me, and march the streets of Birmingham to make our country free" (lines 9-12). ... As I finished reading the poem "B...

  • Word Count: 843
  • Approx Pages: 3

5. Ballad of Birmingham

"Ballad of Birmingham" In the poem Ballad of Birmingham, by Dudley Randall, written in 1969, Mr. ... In the poem "Ballad of Birmingham", by Dudley Randall, written in 1969, Mr. ... The speaker is allowing the reader to make a mental picture of one specific march in Birmingham (Hunter 17). ... I don't know how, but for some reason her mother feels that something has happened to her child, so she runs through the streets of Birmingham, Alabama calling for her child. ...

  • Word Count: 1096
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Tone and Irony in the Ballad of Birmingham

In the nineteen sixties numerous Civil Rights marches started at the Baptist church in Birmingham, AL. ... The "Ballad of Birmingham,"" written by Dudley Randall in nineteen sixty-nine, is based on the bombing of the Birmingham church on September fifteenth nineteen sixty-three. Tone and irony is utilized throughout the poem "Ballad of Birmingham " to illustrate the consequences of a mother's decision, and her responsibility for the safety and protection of her child. ... Randall's use of figures of speech in his poem "Ballad of Birmingham " gives it a touch of irony. ... She senses ...

  • Word Count: 1204
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

7. Ballad of Birmingham

"Ballad of Birmingham": A Poetic Analysis Poetry is a form of expression, a way of invoking feelings from a reader as well as expressing one's own. Dudley Randall's, "Ballad of Birmingham" is an ironic poem about a great tragedy in Birmingham, Alabama where a small girl dies as a result of a battle between races. ... Although the poem itself is fictional, children truly did die in the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama. ...

  • Word Count: 1170
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Parents Love

The mother in "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall illustrates this caring sacrifice. ... In the words of Baxter Miller "the mother refused to let her child march in the wild streets of Birmingham and sent her to the safest place that no harm would become of her daughter". ... The daughter in Dudley Randall poem "Ballad of Birmingham" wants to participate in "a civil rights rally, the loving and fearful mother refuses to let her go"(Baxter 265). ... In the poem "Ballad of Birmingham" the mother "suggests that her child go to Sunday School" instead of demonstrating in the civil rights movem...

  • Word Count: 875
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

9. The Safety of African Americans During The Civil Rights Move

Two such works are a poem "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall and an essay by Martin Luther King, Jr. entitled "Letter from Birmingham Jail". ... The point of view in which "Ballad of Birmingham" is written affects many points in the story. ... In " Ballad of Birmingham" the characters seemed to have some form of motivation for their actions. ... The historical influence in "Ballad of Birmingham" surpasses the obvious influence of the Church Bombing in Birmingham. ... Randall allows the reader to somewhat feel this insecurity through "Ballad of Birmingham". ...

  • Word Count: 2840
  • Approx Pages: 11
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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