Ballad of Birmingham - Academic Mode

Ballad of Birmingham
by Dudley Randall

“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free.”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,
For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,
And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”

Summary of Ballad of Birmingham
Popularity of "Ballad of Birmingham": Dudley Randall, a distinguished African-American poet wrote "Ballad of Birmingham." It is a lyrical ballad known for the theme of the loss of a child due to violence. The poem was written as a response to the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. It was first published in 1965.
"Ballad of Birmingham" as representative of death: the poem tells the story of an African American daughter who asks her mother for permission to participate in the Freedom March in the streets of Birmingham. Her loving and fearful mother prevents her from joining the march and sends her to church. She believes that her daughter would be safer there than on the streets. The mother hears an explosion and runs to the church. She tries to find her daughter in the rubble after seeing her shoes. Readers can easily anticipate the end of the poem. Daughter dies in that massive explosion, and she would be more secure in protest.
Main themes in "Ballad of Birmingham": Mother's love, death and the fight against racism are the main themes of this poem. The poem presents a conflict between a daughter who wants to be part of the march for freedom and the mother who wants to protect her son from the dangers of protesting, so she asks her daughter to spend time within the safe walls of the city. church, but ironically, the safest place he turned turns out to be a fateful area where his daughter tragically dies.
Analysis of literary devices used in "Ballad of Birmingham"
Literary devices are tools used by writers to convey their emotions, ideas and themes to make texts more attractive to the reader.Dudley Randall has also used some literary devices in this poem to discuss a heartbreaking historical incident. The analysis of the literary devices used in this poem is given below.

Images: Images are used to make the reader perceive things that involve their five senses. For example, "And march through the streets of Birmingham", "The mother smiled upon meeting her son" and "She ran through the streets of Birmingham.
Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel tones on the same line. For example the sounds of / o / and / a / in “No, baby, no, you mustn't go.”
Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds on the same line. For example the sound of / s / in “And clubs and hoses, guns and prisons”.
Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant tones in the same line in quick succession. For example, the sound of / f / in “Because I'm afraid these guns will fire”, the sound of / w / in “Your eyes got wet and wild” and the sound / b / in “But baby, where are you?
Symbolism: Symbolism means using symbols to denote ideas and qualities and to give them symbolic meanings that differ from literal meanings. Here “church” is the symbol of security and religion and “white” symbolizes innocence and purity.
Irony: Irony is a phrase in which words are used in such a way that their intended meaning differs from the spoken or written meaning. This poem is ironic because a church is usua lly thought of a safe place, free from all evils, but the explosion killed the child. It shows that her daughter would have lived if the mother had let her join the march for freedom.
Enjambment: Defined as a thought in verse that does not end in a line break; instead, go to the next line. For example,
"The mother smiled knowing that her son
hers was in the holy place,
But that smile was the last smile
to appear on her face."

Metaphor: It is a rhetorical figure in which an implicit comparison is made between objects of different nature. For example, "Because dogs are fierce and wild." Here the 'dogs' are metaphors for far-right groups trying to suppress the American civil rights movement.

Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Ballad of Birmingham
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but some are only used in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.

Ballad: A ballad is a poem that tells a story and is meant to be sung or recited. "Ballad of Birmingham" is one of the famous ballads of the 19
stanza: a stanza is a poetic form of a few lines. There are eight four-line stanzas in this poem.
Quatrain: A quatrain is a four-line stanza that was borrowed from Persian poetry. Here each stanza is quatrain.
repetition The following lines are repeated in the second and fourth stanzas of the poem, which have created a musical quality in the poem. For example, “No, baby, no, you mustn't go. “
Refrain: The line that is repeated at some distance in a poem is called the refrain. The verse, "No, baby, no, you mustn't go" is repeated in the same words. Hence it has become a refrain in this ballad.
Quotes used
The following lines can be used by parents as a warning to their children about the dangers of walking alone.

"No, baby, no, you mustn't go,
For the dogs are wild and wild,
And clubs and hoses, rifles and prisons ,
Are not good for a little kid.