Ballad_Of_Birmingham

Ballad Of Birmingham Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham” describes the events of one mother’s tragedy. This poem is a literary ballad. It tells the story of what happened in Birmingham. The “Ballad of Birmingham” refers to the day in 1963 when four black children were killed when the 16th street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama was bombed. This poem is a literary ballad. It has a rhyme scheme of abcb defe. There are two speakers in the poem both the mother and daughter. Through conversation we can get a sense of what the speakers are thinking and feeling. In this poem a little girl asks her mother if she can go and march for freedom in the streets of Birmingham. Her mother told her she couldn’t because, “the dogs are fierce an wild, and clubs and hoses, guns and jails, aren’t good for children.” The girl insists on going but her mother will not let her. Her mother tells her she should go to church and sing in the choir instead. The daughter goes and her mother smiles mother, poem, go, birmingham, tells, daughter, church, ballad, through, streets, good, because, very, told, thought, story, speakers, sing, sense, sacred, place, little, literary, instead, girl, dangerous, conversation, choir, children, wore, wild, way, two, true, tragic, tragedy