Ballad of Birmingham analysis
First watch the video Bombing of Birmingham to gain an understanding of life in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights movement.
Then read the poem "Ballad of Birmingham" and write a 500-word essay describing your response to the poem.
Questions to consider in writing your essay would include:
- What event does this poem describe?
- How significant was this event in the history of the Civil Rights movement?
- What types of details does the author focus on to describe the event?
- What emotions are evoked in reading this poem?
- Do you think that poetry is an effective means to reflect on historical events?
- How do you feel when you read the poem?
I would remind you that an essay should have structure, including an introductory statement or paragraph, supporting paragraphs that include details and a concluding paragraph.
You do not need to make references to lines in the poem that you use in your essay but you should put them in quotation marks. If you use other sources to research this event, besides the video, please include them in a list of references at the end.
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham (1969)
(On the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 1963)
"Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?"
"No, baby, no, you may not go,
For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails
Aren't good for a little child."
"But, mother, I won't be alone.
Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free."
"No, baby, no, you may not go, For I fear those guns will fire.
But you may go to church instead
And sing in the children's choir."
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.
The mother smiled to know that her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.
For when she heard the explosion,
Her eyes grew wet and wild.
She raced through the streets of Birmingham
Calling for her child.
She clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
"O, here's the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?"