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Why did Dudley Randall write 'Ballad of Birmingham'?
What is the main theme of the poem 'Ballad of Birmingham'?
What is the first stanza of 'Ballad of Birmingham'?
What happened in 'Ballad of Birmingham'?
The poem was written in response to the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, which had a predominantly Black congregation and was targeted by white supremacists on September 15, 1963. Four young Black girls were killed in the explosion, and 22 other congregants were injured.
- Summary of Ballad of Birmingham
- Themes in Ballad of Birmingham
- Structure and Form of Ballad of Birmingham
- Literary Devices in Ballad of Birmingham
- Analysis of Ballad of Birmingham
- Historical Context
- Similar Poems
‘Ballad of Birmingham’by Dudley Randall is a moving narrative of the last moments of a little girl murdered in a church bombing. The poet takes the reader, stanzaby stanza, through the events that led up to this little unnamed girl falling victim to the bombers of the Birmingham 16th Street Baptist Church. She asks her mom at the beginning of the p...
In this poem, the poet engages with themes of equal rights, violence, and loss/sorrow. All of these are quite evident throughout the poem. He paints a clear image of this moment in the Civil Rights Movement and the terrible violence that has engraved it in the minds of all those who witnessed it or later learned about it. The mother’s sorrow comes ...
‘Ballad of Birmingham’ by Dudley Randall is an eight stanza poem that is separated into sets of four lines, known as quatrains. These quatrains follow a consistent rhyme scheme, that matches up with the standard ballad stanza form. The lines rhymeABCB, changing end sounds from stanza to stanza. In regards to the meter, Randall also sticks close to ...
Randall makes use of several literary devices in ‘Ballad for Birmingham’. These include but are not limited to enjambment, caesura, and allusion. The latter is one of the most important techniques in the poem. By connecting this poem directly to a real historical event, the poet is memorializing that event in a powerful way. Since the reader knows ...
Stanzas One and Two
In the first stanza of ‘Ballad of Birmingham,’ the speakerbegins by relaying the imagined words of a child. This little girl is going to be one of the victims of the Birmingham church bombing, but, of course, neither she nor her mother knows what’s to come. She asks her mom if she could go down to the “Freedom March” in Birmingham rather than out to play. This is a powerful opening line that asks today’s reader to consider how powerful this movement was, and still is, in that even young child...
Stanzas Three and Four
The third stanza of ‘Ballad of Birmingham,’ contains the child’s response to her mother. She tells her mom that she isn’t going to be there at the march. She’ll be surrounded by like-minded people who are all seeking to “make our country free”. These arguments don’t convince her mother, who tells her that the “guns” might “fire” on the marchers. Instead, she should go to church, to the “children’s choir”. It is heartbreaking to consider this choice, one that should’ve protected her child and...
Stanza Five and Six
In the sixth stanza of ‘Ballad of Birmingham,’ the poet uses anaphora. This is seen through the repetition of the word “And” at the start of lines two through four. It is building up to the climax of the poem and the terrible events that played out at this church. The little girl is getting ready to go. The imagery in these lines is juxtaposedwith the violence that the reader knows is coming. Words like “rose petal,” “sweet,” “white gloves,” “small black hands,” and “white shoes” all describe...
In addition to the history directly surrounding the events in this poem, it is also important to consider the larger historical context. This bombing and the composition of this poem occurred in the middle of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. During this period, Martin Luther King Jr., along with many other brave and heroic men and wo...
Randall’s ‘Ballad of Birmingham’ is a heartbreaking poem about one of the worst moments in the fight for civil rights in the 1960s in America. But, it is far from the only poem that focuses on this kind of subject matter. Readers should also seek out ‘I, Too , Sing America’ by Langston Hughes, ‘Rosa’by Rita Dove, ’Power’by Audre Lorde, and ‘Caged B...
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- October 9, 1995
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Major Themes in “Ballad of Birmingham”: Mother’s love, death and fight against racism are the major themes of this poem. The poem presents a conflict between a daughter who wants to be part of the freedom march and the mother who desires to protect her child from the dangers of protesting.
Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham” takes the form of a classic ballad, as its title suggests. The poem is composed of eight quatrains, or four-line stanzas, each of which consists of lines...
By Dudley Randall. (On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963) “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.
The Ballad of Birmingham. " Ballad of Birmingham " is a poem by Dudley Randall, [1] that he published as a broadside in 1965. [2] It was written in response to the 1963 bombing at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The poem was set to music by folk singer Jerry Moore in 1967 after he read it in a newspaper, [2] and features ...
Written to memorialize the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, church that killed four young girls, Randall’s poem uses a conventional poetic form (the ballad) that incorporates dialogue, understandable historical allusions, and—though the poem tells the story of a historical event with real people—stock characters to evoke sympathy, shock ...
