Sound & Sense Chapter 1

How does Randall use devices such as irony, diction, and selection of detail to illustrate the innocence of the slain child?

The "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall tells the story of the unexpected and tragic attack on a church in Birmingham, Alabama during the Civil Rights movement. A young African American girl asks her mother for permission to participate in the Freedom March of Birmingham. The mother responds, "No, baby, no you my not go, for I fear those guns will fire. But you may go to church instead and sing in the children's choir" (13-16). Here, Randall sets up the contrast between an expectedly dangerous demonstration and a supposedly safe church. The contrast between the two locations illustrates the tragic, yet ironic end of the poem. The child is killed during the bombing of a church, which is supposed to be a safe and sacred place. The mother sent her child to church and kept the young girl away from the Freedom March to guarantee her daughter's safety, but the child was killed in the attack. Throughout the poem, the mother calls her child, "Baby," rather than by name. The girl's moniker is meant to display her innocence. The use of "baby" functions to create a correlation between the image of the girl and a baby. Babies, are new and innocent; they have not yet had the chance to see the corruption of the world. The girl is also innocent. Although she has been exposed to the cruelty of racism and discrimination, she still believes in the natural goodness of the world. Her desire to march in Birmingham displays her naive hope that her actions alone will make a difference.