Birmingham, Alabama, a city of the south, became a focus for the civil rights movement and several marches and protests took place in its streets – where even children marched for equality. But when four young girls died in a church bombing by white supremacists in response to the …show more content…
demonstrations taking place, families across America were shocked and horrified. As difficult as it was to respond to this tragedy, Dudley Randall, an African-American writer and poet, wrote his sorrow into the lines of “Ballad of Birmingham.” The rhyming poem with simplistic style and heartwrenching matter tells of a time when those who fought to keep the spirit of equality alive were also mourning the death of four young girls. Although the historical event described in the poem happened to an African-American mother and daughter in Birmingham, the rhyme, diction, and imagery of the poem is designed to draw empathy from any reader, no matter his or her race.
First, the use of rhythm, rhyme, and overall sound in the “Ballad of Birmingham” creates a singsong poem that is used to draw the reader in with empathy and then pushed out towards a common effect of bolstering the violent terrors described in the poem.
Furthermore, to enhance this effect, alliteration is used within the poem: “For I fear those guns will fire” (14). In this line, the three F sounds, “for,” “fear,” and “fire,” are strung together and nearly imitate the forceful sound of a gun firing. The use of alliteration is also seen in line 26 when the reader discovers that the mother’s eyes are “wet and wild.” In this line, the sound of the double W’s grabs the attention of the reader and creates a pleasant sound to the ear, permitting the reader to further identify with the mother’s …show more content…
anguish.
Along with alliteration, assonance is also found within the poem: “She clawed through bits of glass and brick, / Then lifted out a shoe” (29-30). In these lines, the quick “I” in “bits,” “brick,” and “lifted” allows the reader to hear a subtle effect of the same sound in a quick and short manner. Furthermore, the quick and short effect of these sounds being strung together creates an anxious tension within the poem as it permits the reader to resonate with the anxiety of the mother as she strains to search for her daughter through the rubble.
Second, despite the race of the reader, the poem makes it easy for any reader to identify emotionally with the mother through the speakers, their diction, and symbolism of the poem. In the first four stanzas of the poem, there are two speakers as the mother and young daughter take turns in a dialogue, beginning in the first stanza with the daughter asking her mother to go downtown:
“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And March the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?” (1-4)
As the daughter asks her mother if she can go downtown, “‘Mother dear, may I go downtown,’” her diction is that of a young and innocent girl who loves and respects her mother.
The word “dear” reveals the admiration and love she has for her mother as she addresses her and the word “may” reveals the respect that she has for her mother. These two words expose the loving and endearing relationship that the mother and daughter have together, which sets the reader up to further identify emotionally with the mother later in the poem. Furthermore, this stanza is designed for the reader to feel drawn towards the daughter as first, the diction of her words helps the reader understand that she is of young age. This creates a soft and pure connection between the reader and the daughter that may have been different if she was older and not as innocent. And second, the daughter wants to go downtown and march for freedom “instead of out to play,” which shows the admirable and honorable character of the daughter that the reader instantly connects with as this behavior can be seen as unusual and surprising for many young
girls. In the second stanza, the mother replies to her daughter: “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.” (5-8)
The mother’s tone of voice in this stanza is worried and frantic as she repeatedly tells her daughter that “no” she cannot go downtown: “‘No, baby, no, you may not go,’” Her tone of voice also carries fear as she justifies all the reasons why her daughter should not go downtown to march: “For the dogs are fierce and wild / And clubs and hoses, guns and jails / Aren’t good for a little child.” In these lines, the mother is fearful of the “fierce and wild” dogs, the “clubs and hoses,” and the “guns and jails” along with their power, cruelty, and how they could hurt her young and innocent daughter. These worried, frantic, and fearful emotions that the mother feels toward her daughter should be relatable to every reader, no matter the reader’s race, background,