The Power Behind the Poem

No one can dispute that Dudley Randall’s “The Ballad of Birmingham” is an extremely powerful poem, the question is why? There are thousands of poems about just as equally horrifying scenarios, but none of them even come close to being as chill inducing as this one. Yes, the topic is extremely powerful, but the way the topic is actually presented is what makes it really stand out. The poem is worded so as to take this tragic event and help the readers relive it through the tearful eyes of a mother. It can sometimes be hard to relate to a blob or text describing something that happened, but by personalizing it and making the reader relate to the mother, Randall is able to help the reader understand some of what it was like to experience the bombing firsthand. 

The bond between mother and child is something universally known and cherished, and by showing that bond Randall manages to connect with the reader on a deeper level. Then after building up this bond of the space of a few stanzas, he manages to rip it away completely. However, he does so in what seems to be the worst way possible. There was no risk, no conflict, nothing to suggest that anything bad could happen, the child actually seemed to be in the safest place possible. But that all seems to flip completely, and the child just disappears. There’s no body, there’s no last sight of the child, there’s just one singular shoe lying in the rubble. The worst part about this is that it still allows some small amount of hope to remain. There’s no definite closure, only a suggestion of what probably happened. 

The combination of flipping everything we know as readers in the space of a few stanzas is what really empowers this poem. The beginning, full of safety, mothers love, and hope turning into a tale of loss, disaster, and uncertainty. That is the real power behind this poem. Its ability to portray what could be considered to be the worst possible scenario, happening completely randomly, while still being 100% realistic.  

Comments

  1. BiancaOctober 18, 2019 at 9:56 PM

    I agree with you. I also think the small details are what really drive the message home, since just saying "four children got killed by a bomb" is much less poignant than describing a mother desperately clawing through rubble in search of her lost child. The strong images drive people empathize with the grieving families of Birmingham in a way they wouldn't otherwise.

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  2. Charlotte EbelOctober 19, 2019 at 10:11 PM

    I definitely agree with you about this. A lot of what makes this poem so deeply emotional and chilling to the reader is the way that the poet frames the story. The simple rhyming scheme, so common in children's poems, creates an eerie and pained feeling in the poem. Unfortunately, a lot of the most horrible things in the poem are simply the facts. The bombing in Birmingham was horrible and unexpected and left so many people without closure. Any way of sharing this horrific story is disturbing, the poet just added to the horror by making distinctive choices with words and perspective.

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  3. DanbiOctober 19, 2019 at 11:52 PM

    Like you said, I think one element of the poem that makes it so powerful is Randall's establishment of a bond between a mother and a young child. I think most everyone has had a moment where their mother scolds them or keeps them from doing something in order to keep them "safe" and from doing the wrong thing and this ability to relate to the reader's own life and memory is what makes this story so chilling. In addition, just the feeling of a mother losing their own child whom they obviously care for greatly is heart wrenching and I think that the poem does a really good job of translating the mother's feelings of traumatic loss and confusion. This poem not only brings awareness about really horrible event in history, but also raises the question of what is really safe in the world. The church, seen as a super safe place that helps the people, ended up being a place of danger. This really puts into perspective how no where, especially at the time, was truly "safe".

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  4. Arav JagroopOctober 20, 2019 at 5:28 PM

    I completely agree with you on this one. This poem is very saddening and the images in the writing is what really produces these emotions. The way that the rhyming scheme of the poem is set up is like Geoffrey said, "a folktale". A folktale that you tell your kids and a folktale that your kids tell their kids. The bombing is very horrible and disturbing but how Randall writes "The Ballad of Birmingham" makes it so powerful.

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  5. OthnielOctober 20, 2019 at 9:53 PM

    It also helps the reader to understand what it was like during that time. Many people take everything or at least some of their things for granted and then reading this lets us understand that safety was not a promise in those times. Going to church and to school is a safe place today, but it wasn't like that in the past. It just puts everything into perspective and makes us be thankful for what we have.

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