The poem “Ballad of Birmingham ” is about the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama and the morning before one of four of the little girl’s death. Dudley Randall writes this poem to show us the innocence of the child and how 4 children died from the bombing that day, by the chaos of the world. 

“Mother dear, may i go downtown

 Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a freedom March today?”

This quatrain tells us how this little girl is still innocent and sweet by saying “Mother dear may i go downtown?” indicating that she also may be posh. It shows how the little girl wants rights for everyone, and she is willing to go downtown and march on the behalf of her country.

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Arent good for a little child.”

This quatrain has a metaphor in it. Randall has used the word “dogs” to describe the cruel people on the street. “And clubs and hoses, guns and jails, arent good for a little child”, talks about how if you go to the protest then this is what she will experience. For they use the hoses to fire at people and the clubs for hitting them. They use jails for locking people up even at her age. It doesn’t matter how young or how old you are for they don’t care. And they will use guns for killing people. Like her. 

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will be with me, 

And march the street of Birmingham

To make our country free.”

In this quatrain she is talking about how she is still a child “Other children will be with me“, and together they will risk their lives to make their country free of the cruelty and racism they experience every day.

`She clawed through bits of glass and brick,

Then lifted out a shoe,

“O here’s the shoes my baby wore.

But, baby, where are you?”

This quatrain switches from narration to dialogue. She is talking out loud to the room and then she also is addressing her child “but baby where are you.” This is a sad quatrain as the little girl dies that day, leaving the mother in hatred like the dogs in the streets. Hatred for the society that she lives in and hatred for the people who killed her little girl.

The techniques of Assonance, Alliteration, and Metaphors have been used in this poem. Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds. For example: when then mother says ” “And march the streets of Birmingham”, and “She raced through the streets of Birmingham.” Alliteration is the occurrence of a letter or sound at the begining of closely connected words. For example: ““fear,” and “fire” and “wet and wild”. A metaphor is where word is uses to describe an object or action but the description is not what that object or description really is. For example when the mum say’s “For the dogs are fierce and wild”. The mother isn’t talking about actual dogs itself but the cruel people in society. “She clawed through bits of glass and brick” is also an example of a metaphor because she doesn’t have claws but she was desperately trying to find her little darling girl but only managed to get her shoe.