18 pages • 36 minutes read
Dudley RandallBallad of Birmingham
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1965A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Ballad of Birmingham” is a narrative poem that comprises eight quatrains (stanzas of four lines) with the rhyme scheme ABCB—ballad stanza. The poem includes other elements of the ballad stanza. Most first and third lines of each stanza are in iambic tetrameter—four sets of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: “The mo | ther smiled | to know | her child” (Line 21). The second and fourth lines of each stanza generally are in iambic trimeter, three sets of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: “In stead | of out | to play” (Line 2).
While the rhyme scheme is regular, there are notable departures from the overall meter. Several of the second lines include an extra syllable at the start or end, as in “For the dogs | are fierce | and wild” (Line 6). Such lines almost always come when the mother expresses her fear over her daughter’s safety, and the extra syllable shows how disruptive that fear is to the daily life of the mother. When the worst happens—the explosion—the meter disintegrates even further: “Cal ling | for her child” (Line 28).
“Ballad of Birmingham” has a distinct narrative structure. There is a plot. In the first part of the narrative, Stanzas 1 through 4, the mother and daughter are in conflict over the little girl’s desire to go to the march. In Stanzas 5 and 6, the tension is seemingly resolved, and the mother goes through the soothing ritual of preparing each part of the girl’s person for churchgoing. Lines 23 and 24 are foreshadowing—a plot point that anticipates future events. The climax—point of highest tension—comes in Stanza 7. The resolution (wrapping up of the plot) in Stanza 8 shows the tragic outcome of the mother’s choices. Randall’s choices around rhyme, meter, and structure show the influence of the ballad in the poem.
Juxtaposition
Juxtaposition is the presentation of two things together in order to enhance the contrast between them. There are several examples of juxtaposition in the poem. In the first two stanzas of the poem, Randall juxtaposes the attitudes of the little girl and the mother toward social protest. While the little girl sees protest as a “Freedom March” (Line 4) in which children can safely participate, the mother sees the march as a dangerous event where vicious dogs, “clubs and hoses, guns and jails” (Line 7) will be unleashed on her daughter. In the third and fourth stanzas, the mother’s fears about the violence at the protests contrast with the little girl’s idealistic belief that she will be safe because she will be in the company of “[o]ther children” (Line 10). Randall uses juxtaposition to show the differences between two generations when it comes to securing civil rights for Black Americans.
Situational Irony
Situational irony occurs when expectations and reality don’t match up. There are several instances of irony in “Ballad of Birmingham.” The mother sends her daughter to church to protect the little girl, but the little girl is so unsafe in the church that she dies. The mother prevents the little girl from going to the dangerous march, but the girl may have actually had a better chance of survival there. The girl’s belief that she would likely be safe marching in the company of others was the reality as opposed to the mother’s expectation.
