Ballad Of Birmingham

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Ebony Johnson Gridley Instructor Laura Govia 30 January 2012 Ball of Birmingham Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham” is about an African American girl who dies in a bombing in 1963 in the state of Alabama. Segregation between African Americans and Whites was very violent and dangerous. The ballad is about a child asking her mother for permission to march in the streets of Birmingham to make their country free (line 11-12). She told her child not to march and to go to church where her and her friends would be safe from all the violence in the country. Her mother had to keep her family out of the dangers of active political protests like the Freedom March or she would lose her job and her freedom to continue to be in the white community. She goes to the church and sings in the children choir but something happens. A bomb explodes and kills the child in the church. This poem, by Dudley Randall, consists of four-line stanzas that follow the traditional folk ballad. The poem is an example of irony. The use of irony and imagery are contributes to this poem. The words “fierce,” “wild,” and “guns” all are images of fights and riots (6-7). An example of irony in this poem is the mother dresses her child in her nice clothes for church with her white gloves, which represents the first Sunday holy commune. The images shift to innocence nature with the words “rose petal sweet”

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