Poem analysis
Among the three pieces of literature, Ballad of Birmingham, Arose of Emily, and Beauty, Ballad of Birmingham is the most engaging. Dudley Randall’s literature work, “Ballad of Birmingham,” focuses on the actual life bombarding of an African-American house of worship in late 1963. It starts with a mother-daughter dialogue of a liberty protest. The mother refuses to grant permission for her daughter to take part. Instead, the young girl is permitted to join a church that is ruined terribly in the act of violence. The poem’s theme is founded in the futile attempt of the girl’s mother trying to convince her not to participate in the protest.
Dudley Randall usually applies literary skills that foretell the passing on of a girl of tender age who is the central focus in the poem. In one definition, Ballad of Birmingham is said to be a plot focused song with a single or extra character swiftly unfolding events resulting in a dramatic finish. Moreover, the parenthesis at the start of the literary work, “on the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963”, makes it vibrant to the readers that this ballad’s vivid ending will be a tragedy(). It means that the logic of prophesying is generated right from the beginning of the poem. Even though the reader has not so far been familiarized with the characters of the literature work, the reader promptly feels very sick aware that this ballad will end in a disaster. In terms of the literature work’s technique, the ABCB rhyme pattern, distinctive of a ballad, produces an almost cheerful, optimistic rhythm that openly goes against the content of the work. The disparity may be said to echo the young girl’s blamelessness, as well as her mother’s consciousness to what is likely to unfold, with this emphasizing the dismay of the disaster in that they were so delightfully unaware of the incidents that would follow. The explicit language that Randall uses complements to this sense of foreshadowing. The recurrent usage of but after every line break makes us feel anxious, as at the beginning of the poem. While the mother and her daughter are safe, “but” recommends something that goes against the existing condition. The writer uses irony in the poem. The church is a secure place, but the innocent girl is killed by an explosion that occurs at the church. Another reason why the Ballad of Birmingham poem does plot well than the other three poems is the repeat of some distance line known as a refrain. For example, the verse “No, baby, no, you may not go” is repetitive with similar words (). The writer also uses imaging techniques to make readers distinguish things connecting their five senses, such as “And march the streets of Birmingham ().” Following analysis of the several means by which the author foretells the demise of the little girl, the answer why he did that may be demanded.
In conclusion, after going through the entire poem, I felt moved by the way the story is presented. The writer leaves the readers at a point of suspense, wanting to know what happened later. From the way Dudley Randall concludes the poem, the reader may believe that the little girl never survived the bombing act at the church. Therefore, the way the poem is presented makes it stand out among the other literary works, Arose of Emily, and Beauty.
Reference
Randall, D. (1965). Ballad of Birmingham. Detroit, MI: Broadside Press.
Mitchell, V. D., & Davis, C. (Eds.). (2019). Encyclopedia of the Black Arts Movement. Rowman & Littlefield.