Irony In Dudley Randall's Ballad Of Birmingham

A Tragic Day Poetry is all around us. Poetry is beautiful and powerful since it can spark a person’s imagination, act as an outlet for one’s emotion, and it captures a feeling, a look, and a moment. Although some people are intrigued with this form of writing while others do not find it as appealing, poetry says a lot with just a few words. The poem, “Ballad of Birmingham”, was written in 1965, the time of the Civil Rights Movement. It took place in Birmingham, Alabama and it was during the time that Martin Luther King Jr. would have rallies as well as freedom marches in order to free the African-American people from inequality and discrimination. This specific poem commemorates the 1963 bombing of an African-American church. In the poem “Ballad

In “Ballad of Birmingham," one form of irony is situational irony, and it occurs when the actions of a situation have the exact opposite effects of what is expected to happen. Dudley Randall’s poem is about a young girl who wants to attend a freedom march, but her mother denies her the opportunity to participate in the rally since she believes her darling daughter would be endangered, so therefore she sends her to church in an effort to keep her safe. The mother mentions, “For I fear those guns will fire. / But you may go to church instead / And sing in the children’s choir” (14-16). The situational irony is that the mother was happy that her daughter was in a “sacred place” (22) instead of the Freedom March. The mother refused to let her daughter be apart of the protest due to the fact that she believed it was not an ideal place for her young daughter to be in and like any mother, she was afraid of the violence and animosity that could have transpired or occurred. Instead, the outcome is very different from what the mother expected, and the child is killed in a bombing that takes place in the church. The poet reveals, “But that smile was the last smile / To come upon her face. / For when she heard the explosion, / Her eyes grew wet and wild” (23-26). Although it is tragedy that a life was taken at a young age, it is ironic that the rally was a much safer place than a church that is supposed to be a holy and safe place. Irony plays an important role in this