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BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM

Dudley Randall

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RANDALL BIOGRAPHY

Born on January 14, 1914 in Washington D.C.

Mother was a teacher, Father was a minister

Earned a Bachelors Degree in English at Wayne State

University, and a Masters Degree in Library Science at the

University of Michigan

Married three times with one child from his first marriage

Publisher, Editor, and Founder ofBroadside Press

Published two major collections, More to RememberandALitany of Friends

Dudley Randall. Dudley Randall Biography 07 March 2010.

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DISCUSSION/ANALYSIS

Context:

The poem was written in response to a bombing of a

Baptist Church in 1963, where four young African

American girls were killedTheme:

Sadness/Loss

The mother fears her daughter may be hurt or even killedafter hearing an explosion in the streets of Birmingham

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Setting:

Birmingham, Alabama 1963

Location of the bombing that occurred at Sixteenth

Street Baptist Church in 1963

How do we know? Narrator speaks in Past Tense

Point of View Third Person

Narrator describes the bombing at Birmingham and also

describes the conversation between the mother and

daughter before it happened

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Word Choice:

Diction

Freedom March (line 4) Indicates that the mother

and daughter live in a time where their human rights

were limited , and shows their struggle and fight to gain

freedom

baby (lines 5,13,32) Shows the love and protection

the mother has for her daughter

clawed (line 29) Displays the panic and fear of the

mother as she frantically searches for her daughter after

the explosion

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Photo of the four African American girls who were

murdered in the 1963 bombing in Birmingham, Alabama

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Figurative Language/Devices

Symbolism

Explosion (line 24) Represents chaos and tragedy; can

also symbolize danger amongst the people ofBirmingham

Shoe (lines 30-31) Represents the mothers fear and

panic for her daughter as she finds it under a pile of

rubble (lines 29-32); can also symbolize death of thedaughter

Form

Eight quatrains (Groups of 4 lines) Uses an ABCB rhyming pattern

Second and fourth lines rhyme

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Alliteration

Lines 3-4 The daughter asks her mother if she

can march in the Freedom March; repetition ofmarch emphasizes the daughters desire to go

Lines 5,13 The mother responds No, baby, no,

you may not go; repetition of the consonant letter

n enhances the musical rhythm of the poem

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COMPARISON TO OTHER PIECES

The form and symbolism ofBallad of Birmingham issimilar to that ofI Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

Both are poetry

Use of quatrains and an ABCB rhyming pattern

Both use symbols that can represent death (a broken plankand a shoe)

The theme ofBallad of Birmingham is similar to thetone ofSalvation

The sadness of the mothers loss is related to the boys lossof faith in religion

Both characters realize their loss and grief at the end of thepieces