BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM

Dudley Randall

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 of Broadside Press Published two major collections, More to Remember and A Litany of Friends
Dudley Randall. Dudley Randall Biography 07 March 2010. <http://biography.jrank.org/pages/2931/Randall-Dudley.html

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 killed Theme: Sadness/Loss

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

Setting:
Birmingham,
Location

Alabama 1963

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

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

Photo of the four African American girls who were murdered in the 1963 bombing in Birmingham, Alabama

Figurative Language/Devices
Symbolism
Explosion

(line 24) Represents chaos and tragedy; can also symbolize danger amongst the people of Birmingham 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 the daughter

Form
Eight

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

Second

and fourth lines rhyme

Alliteration
Lines

3-4 The daughter asks her mother if she can march in the Freedom March; repetition of march 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

COMPARISON TO OTHER PIECES

The form and symbolism of Ballad of Birmingham is similar to that of I 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 plank and a shoe)

The theme of Ballad of Birmingham is similar to the tone of Salvation

The sadness of the mothers loss is related to the boys loss of faith in religion Both characters realize their loss and grief at the end of the pieces