Compares Essay

Compares essay

When death affects us personally, our grief seems overwhelming and irremediable. But when it affects others, we tend to distance ourselves from it. In “Ballad of Birmingham,” Dudley Randall does something news stories and textbooks cannot. He makes the sadness of an infamous tragedy vivid and heartfelt to everyone who reads it, whether they have a connection to the tragedy or not. “Ballad of Birmingham” is based on the events of a day that has been recounted in books and on television for decades. By approaching these events from a sentimental point of view rather than an objective one, Randall provides unique insight into the tragedy. Only four families knew what it was like to lose a child in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church. Although news reports might have described the sadness and shock of the families, outsiders couldn’t truly comprehend the magnitude of their loss unless they experienced it themselves. “Ballad of Birmingham” doesn’t attempt to describe the emotions of that day in 1963, but instead, creates them by focusing on two people-- a mother and daughter-- who were affected by the bombing firsthand. The first four stanzas are a conversation between the mother and her daughter, who wishes to march in the streets of Birmingham to protest segregation. The mother, worried for her daughter’s safety, argues that Birmingham is not safe for a little girl. She convinces her to go to church instead, where she assumes she will be protected. The poem ends with the mother’s realization that her daughter died in the explosion that blasted the church. The fifth stanza shows the mother preparing her daughter for Sunday school, and gives us a better understanding of how young the girl really is. The poem describes white shoes on her feet and white gloves on her “small brown hands.” This physical description demonstrates the daughter’s purity and youth, which heightens the emotional impact of her death. We can feel this sudden emotional shift in the sixth stanza, and see the smile leave the mother’s face as the explosion rocks the church. As she digs through the rubble and finds one of her daughter’s white shoes, we realize she was killed. But the last line, in which the mother asks “But, baby, where are you?” leaves us wondering the same thing. Although the mother and daughter are nameless, this does not detract from the poem‘s effect. The dialogue between them in the first four stanzas shows what kind of relationship they have. The daughter addresses her mom as “Mother dear” and the mother addresses her daughter as “baby” and “little child.” Like many young children, the daughter begs her mother to let her have her way, but the mother “fears those guns will fire.” She knows there is danger in what her child wants to do. We see traits in the mother and her adamancy, and the daughter and her stubbornness, which we see in families everywhere. After reading the poem, the mother and daughter can no longer be thought of as nameless victims of hate crimes. They become real people and make us realize that the daughter could be our daughter or the mother could be our mother. It allows us to experience the loss with the mother, rather than just observe it as we would in a text book or documentary. What starts out as a normal day, in which a child wants to go outside, ends as a mother’s worst nightmare. But the poem itself isn’t a dry, historical description of a tragic event. While it does discuss what happened that Sunday morning, it does so from one mother‘s standpoint. It shows the very personal experience of losing a child, instead of a broad overview of events. The poem doesn’t use words to describe the mother’s despair and heartbreak, though. It evokes those emotions in us. This is what makes the poem most effective. We are allowed to respond the way we feel we should, with a range of emotions-- from complete shock to inconsolable sadness. By giving personalities to the people affected by the bombing, the author shows that we can relate to and feel sympathy for them in a way we couldn’t through a history book. In doing so, the poem connects us to a past we thought we were distant from, and shows that grief is real, raw, and emotionally consuming for all humanity.

By:
Daniel Cornett