Dudley Randall's Poem 'Ballad Of Birmingham'

656 Words3 Pages
Dudley Randall, a publisher and talented poet, was born during 1914. The south was known as having the most extreme racism towards african americans. Many violent events took place in Birmingham. Dudley, like many writers, was shocked by these incidents and,using them as inspiration, took to writing. This writer’s most famous poem “Ballad of Birmingham” tells the story of a church bombing that took place in 1963.The fame of this poem came from an abundance of literary elements within a story that is historically accurate and still relevant today. To begin, “Ballad of Birmingham”is well respected for its use of many literary elements. The author keeps his poem very simple and easy to read; short words and an easy ABCB rhyme scheme make the poem understandable to many people. Dudley’s use of simple language also appears in his tone. Trying to portray realism within his poem, the author uses relaxed language. For example, in the poem the daughter asks if she can go downtown to protest and the mother responds in a way showing that violent protests are a daily part of their community. Dudley uses this realism to show how bad the situation in Birmingham had become.…show more content…
The theme portrayed in this story appears to be that no matter how much you try to hide from a situation, eventually it will affect you. Within the story, Dudley tell the story of a mother that tries to hide her daughter from violent protests. The mother tells the child to go to sing in the choir at church. Thinking her child “Was in the sacred place”, she didn't consider anything would happen to her daughter, then an awful bombing occurred killing the daughter. The author used this irony to display his theme of just how bad things can get even though you try to avoid a
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