What is the meaning of the poem Ballad of Birmingham?

“The Ballad of Birmingham was written by Dudley Randall. The poem commemorates the bombing of a black church in Alabama in 1963, at the height of the civil rights movement.

Why does the author describe what the daughter looks like how she smells and what she is wearing to church?

Why does the author describe what the daughter looks like, how she smells, and what she is wearing to church? He is trying to explain how pretty she looks. He wants you to feel sorry for her because she couldn’t go to the Freedom March. He wants you to understand she is young and innocent.

Why did Dudley Randall write Ballad of Birmingham?

Randall had composed the poem “Ballad of Birmingham” after a bomb exploded in an Alabama church, killing four children. “Folk singer Jerry Moore of New York had it set to music, and I wanted to protect the rights to the poem by getting it copyrighted,” the publisher recalls in Broadside Memories: Poets I Have Known.

How old was Dudley Randall when he died?

86 years (1914–2000)
Dudley Randall/Age at death

Randall died of congestive heart failure on Aug. 5, 2000. He was 86. Today, the press operates as Broadside Lotus Press, after having merged with a press founded by Naomi Long Madgett, who became Detroit’s poet laureate in 2001.

Why did Dudley Randall wrote Ballad of Birmingham?

What is the irony on Ballad of Birmingham?

Irony plays a major role in the poem ” Ballad of Birmingham ” by Dudley Randall . In the poem, the child asks her mother if she can go into town to participate in the Freedom March. Her mother tells her that it will be too dangerous to go to the march and that she should instead go to the church to sing in the choir where it is safe.

What is the story of Ballad of Birmingham?

Dudley Randall’s poem “Ballad of Birmingham” is a tribute to a real-life church bombing in 1963, which killed four young girls. The main theme is that nothing — not even a mother’s love or the sacred walls of a church — can protect an innocent child from racial violence. Irony is important to the theme.

Why is the poem Ballad of Birmingham a ballad?

Dudley Randall ’s poem “Ballad of Birmingham” is a tribute to a real-life church bombing in 1963, which killed four young girls. The main theme is that nothing — not even a mother’s love or the sacred walls of a church — can protect an innocent child from racial violence.

What is the alliteration in Ballad of birminham?

In the Ballad of Birmingham, there are sound devices that reinforce the meaning behind the poem. There is a use of alliteration, an initial consonant, sound. Examples of alliteration in the poem are”for,” “fear,” and “fire” in lines 14 and “wet” and “wild” in lines 26. An assonance, repetition of the same word, can also be found in the poem.

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