Ballad of Birmingham poetry outline

Thesis: The poet uses deliberate language to emphasize the injustice of bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama and evoke emotion from the audience.

1.      Dialogue

-The little girl asks her mother if she can, instead of going outside to play, “‘march the streets of Birmingham / In a Freedom March’” (3-4).

This quotation displays the maturity of the little girl in the poem. Most little girls want to play outside with their friends, but this one prefers to participate in marches to fight for her freedom. The reader is able to gain respect for the child and see she has goals to change the world she lives in for the better.

-At the end of the poem the mother cries out “‘baby, where are you?’” (32).

            The audience knows that the little girl has died in the bombing, but this quotation takes us into the mother’s perspective. She does not want to believe that her little girl has passed on which evokes an emotional response from the reader. Hopefully the emotional response is strong enough that the audience will take a stand against the injustice.

2.      Visual Imagery

-The little girl “bathed rose petal sweet” (18).

            Although this little girl displays maturity within the poem, this quotation reminds the reader that she is still an innocent, little girl. She is delicate and defenseless against the evils that lie outside her door.

-She also has “drawn white gloves on her small brown hands” (19).

This quotation also displays the innocence of the little girl to the audience. The fact that she is a little girl adds emotion to the poem because she is perceived as much more defenseless than a grown man or woman.

3.      Irony

-The mother has her little girl go to the “sacred place” (22).

            The ‘sacred place’ is church, which should be a safe haven away from all violence. This causes the audience to question where they can be safe if not in their place of worship.

-The little girl was not allowed to “march the streets of Birmingham” (3).

            The streets were thought to be dangerous, but on that particular day they were safer than church. This evokes more emotion from the reader because the little girl’s life could have been saved with one simple decision, if only she had gone to the Freedom March instead of church.