The Ballad Of Birmingham Poem - 1385 Words

Boom! Imagine, in the blink of an eye, everything in your world has fallen apart. Your child’s soul is sucked out of her body by a stranger your child has never met before. Imagine your child making world news and being put in history books because of the evil negligence of another fellow American. This reality was true for the families of the victims in the Ballad of Birmingham poem. In my opinion, this is a well structured essay by Dudley Randall which describes minutes before an innocent girl dies in one of the most unimaginable ways. I believe losing her child is a hard thing for a mother to go through. I enjoy the end rhyme and the ability for the audience to understand the poem’s composition. I do not like the way the poem’s tone†¦show more content†¦She sent her child to sing in the choir, in hopes she would be safe in God’s tabernacle, but instead, the child went to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church death trap. Secondly, I disagree with the way Dudley Randall ended the poem. Even though the reader can assume what happened to the child, the poem slightly leaves you with a cliffhanger. The child’s lifeless body cannot be found by her desperate and destitute mother. The audience can be left feeling melancholy and incomplete. Lastly, Randall, in my opinion, strategically wrote stanza five in the poem very well,â€Å"She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair, And bathed rose petal sweet, And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands, And white shoes on her feet†(Randall 19). Lastly, the white gloves and white shoes represent purity and innocence of the adolescent. The way the little girl brushes her black hair and bathes in sweet aromas represents the child’s vulnerability and how sweet the little things are in life. Dudley Randall was born in early 1914 in Washington, D.C. but later migrated to Detroit, Michigan in 1920 (Madgett). At the young age of thirteen, Dudley Randall wrote his first poem. During the span of his life, he has written poems such as â€Å"Langston Blues†, â€Å"Green Apples†, and the utmost famous â€Å" Ballad of Birmingham†(wikipedia: Dudley Randall). Randall’s poetic themes are on controversial subjects. â€Å"When Ballad of Birmingham, written in response to the 1963 bombing of a church in whichShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of The Poem Ballad Of Birmingham 1121 Words   |  5 Pagesfor Critical Analysis Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚   Irony is a big part in life, especially when you try to something right and it ultimately blows up in your face. This poem written by Dudley Randall   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Ballad of Birmingham† is a world shattering and ironic story of a mother trying to keep her daughter out of harm’s way, and it ultimately failed. Randall wrote his poem in dialogue to show a conversation between mother and daughter. As well as that, dialogue is used to show the hardships of growing up black especiallyRead More Dudley Randalls Poem Ballad of Birmingham Essay593 Words   |  3 PagesDudley Randalls Poem Ballad of Birmingham The poem The Ballad of Birmingham, by Dudley Randall, is based on the historical event of the bombing in 1963 of Martin Luther King, Jr.s church by white terrorists. It is a poem in which a daughter expresses her interest in attending a civil rights rally and the mother fearful for her daughters safety refuses to let her go. In the poem the daughter in fighting for the course of the operessed people of her time/generation instead of going out toRead MoreDudley Randalls Poem Ballad of Birmingham Essay examples563 Words   |  3 Pagesfather was very much into politics because of that Dudley and his brother would listen to prominent black speakers. When Randall was about nine years old he and his family move to Detroit, Michigan in 1920. By the time he was thirteen he had his first poem published in the Detroit Free Press. At the age of sixteen he had graduated from high school. After graduation, he went to work for a blast furnace unit at a Ford Motor Company’ Rouge Plant. After working at Ford for five years Randall took a jobRead MoreFigure Of Speech InBallad Of Birmingham, By Dudley Randall1059 Words   |  5 Pagesâ€Å"Ballad of Birmingham† is a ballad written by Dudley Randall. A literary ballad is a poem that tells a short story in a simple narrative and is not accompanied by music. In this ballad, Randall tells the story of an African American mother and her child living in the 1960s. In this period of time African Americans and other minority groups where segregated and denied their Humans Rights. To analyze a poem, you have to first analyze or find the literary elements of the poem to get an idea of the timeRead MoreShadows On The Skin : A Study Of Dually Randall And Paul Laurence Dunbar957 Words   |  4 PagesAmerican living before the civil rights movement. Both men use poems that emphasize sound, structure and imagery to expre ss what they experienced during that harsh time. A careful analysis of â€Å"We Wear the Mask† and â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham† expose that the shadows cast on their skin has a lasting impression. Dunbar and Randall both use interesting imagery in their poems to display how the character truly feels. In the â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham,† stanzas such as â€Å"Her eyes grew wet and wild†(26) and â€Å"DrawnRead MoreA Historical Look Into the â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham1102 Words   |  5 PagesA Historical Look into the â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham The â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham is a shocking poem that was written by Dudley Randall about a bombing of an African American church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963. The bombing of the church was racially motivated and resulted in the death of four innocent African American girls and was the turning point in the United States 1960s Civil Rights Movement. In Dudley’s poem he has taken such a sad event and turned it into a poem showing the racially motivatedRead More`` Ballad Of Birmingham `` By Randall Dudley1332 Words   |  6 Pagesshe will experience. A scared mother who does not want her little girl to see what is going on has no idea what is fixing to happen. Randall Dudley’s â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham,† gives a clear vision of what happened this day in 1963. The bombing at the 16th street baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama was a tragic event for the ones in this time. The poem shows the social and historical context of what exactly was going on during th is time. The author, Randall Dudley, was born on January 14, 1914. HeRead MoreBallad Of Birmingham, By Dudley Randall1602 Words   |  7 PagesThe poem I chose to write about is called â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham,† by Dudley Randall, (Lit. Kirszner Mandell, 2012 pg. 378 ). This poem is about one of the four little African-American girls that were killed in a church bombing that was orchestrated by white supremacists back in 1963 in Birmingham, Alabama. The 1960s were a tumultuous decade for America, particularly on the off chance that you lived in the southern portion of the nation. It was pretty obvious that the Southern states were stillRead MoreThe Ballad Of Birmingham, By Duley Randall1139 Words   |  5 PagesMany poems deal with the harsh realities of the death of a loved one and how those affected begin to heal as they work through the process of grieving. The Ballad of Birmingham, Eating Alone and Eating Together all portray individuals dealing with a devastating loss in their life, and the authors use their personal life experiences and views, incorporating them their writings. In The Ballad of Birmingham the author, Duley Randall, works to convey a tragic scene of loss. The event that RandallRead MoreAnalysis Of `` Ozymandias `` And The Ballad Of Birmingham ``1266 Words   |  6 Pagesbe defined in many different and seemingly unique ways. Robert Frost made an attempt to define poetry, â€Å"A poem is an idea caught in the act of dawning†(Kennedy and Gioia). Poetry can carry a sensitive message, as seen in the poems â€Å"Ozymandias† and the â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham†, as they present two separate ideas. â€Å"Ozymandias† involved the destruction of a statue, and the â€Å"Ballad of Birmingham† depicts racism and segregation of the civil rights era. Racism and segregation were a prominent theme in America