Ballad of Birminingham
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Poetic analysis:
In lines 1-4 there is repetition and rhyme involved:
“Mother dear, may I go downtown
Instead of out to play,
And march the streets of Birmingham
In a Freedom March today?”
In lines 5-8 involves the mothers tone or views towards the situation:
5- “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.”
In lines 9- 12 the child also points out their insight or tone (positive) about the march:
“But, mother, I wont be alone.
10- Other children will go with me,
And march the streets of Birmingham To make our country free.”
In lines 13-17 the mother again explains her tone toward the situation and how she does not want to lose her “baby” over a bullet for she wants her child to go to church a safer environment:
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
for I fear those guns will fire. 15-But you may go to church instead
and sing in the childrens choir.”
In lines 18-22 is catalog excerpt it is a poetic description of what the mother is doing:
She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair, And bathed rose petal sweet,
And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,
And white shoes on her feet.