What's the thesis of this poem ??

Question

http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/church.html
Ballad ofBrimingham

I'm writing an analysis for this, but I can't find the thesis. I also have some problems with it.

1.Is this poem about a war, so the mother doesn't want her daughter to go out? I think it is because the "explosion"
2. What's the thesis of this poem ??
3. Why does the mother go to the street of Birmingham to look for her daughter? Didn't the daughter go to the church?

Thanks for helping me

Answer 1

Poems don't have theses; essays do. Poems convey an insight into human experience. The questions to ask of a poem are, What is the experience being depicted (or referred to) in the poem, and What insight does it give you?

If you don't recongize the experience, you may have to do a little homework. For the insight, you have to think . . . think . . . think.

For this poem, if you don't recognize the event being referred to, try this: Do a Yahoo! Search for the poet Dudley Randall and the "Birmingham church bombing." Here's what you'll find, even if you limit yourself to wikipedia . [1, 2]

Poems may not always be this direct. Having read these two items for background, you can rephrase your questions and answer them easily:

(1) What experience is being depicted in this poem?

This poem is about the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Specifically, a mother in Birmingham, Alabama, wants to protect her young daughter from possible violence by having her attend church instead of going to a street protest. But the church is bombed and her daughter , one of the fatalities. Dudley Randall's poetry, we are told "is characterized by simplicity and realism." The details of the poem may have been fictionalized; the facts, if anything, were even more brutal. One of the actual children "was so mutilated the only way to identify her was by the ring she wore, which was recognized by her father." In the poem, the mother finds only her daughter's shoe.

(2) What insight into the experience does the reader get? You have to answer this one for yourself personally. How would you have felt if you were that mother? How would you have felt if you had been alive then and had read her story in the newspaper or seen it on television?

One insight is the bitter irony that the girl is the victim of explosive violence because the Ku Klux Klan'ers bombed the church where her mother sent her to be safe. The further, unspoken irony in the civil rights era was that, instead of halting the protests by instilling fear in the African American community, the church bombing of 1963 focused the attention of the whole country on the bitter injustice; furthermore, it motivated widespread, national attention to the problem, including extensive protests well beyond Birmingham.

Curiously, one of the victims of the bombing was a classmate and personal friend of the young Condoleeza Rice. One wonders whether Rice would have had the opportunities for success she had without the extensive protests motivated, in part, by response to this tragedy.

And the drama of the tragedy lives on; for example,
* The song "Alabama" on John Coltrane's Live at Birdland (recorded November 18, 1963) served as an elegy to the bombing.
* The song "Birmingham Sunday", composed by Richard Farina and recorded by Joan Baez, chronicled the events and aftermath of the bombing.
* A 1997 documentary about the bombing, 4 Little Girls, directed by Spike Lee, was nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Documentary."
* This poem by Dudley Randall is being read, and the experience relived through his words, even today.

Answer 2

Thesis: While the man and the girl begin, their relationship with little concern about what the future holds for them, and no limitations or rules with regard to each other, their forced to face the consequences of their carefree lifestyle when the girl realizes she is pregnant. The man proves to be cold, selfish, and manipulative as the girl shows herself to be naïve, confused, and genuinely concerned about the seriousness of their situation. I. Characteristics of the man A. Cold B. Selfish C. Manipulative II. Characteristics of the girl (Jig) A. Naïve B. Confused C. She is genuinely concerned.

Randall uses of irony to describes the events of the mothers decision, and also her concern for the welfare of her darling little child.

The poem was written in ballad form to convey the mood of the mother to her daughter

The Ballad of Birmingham, is a poem that commemorates the bombing of a black church in Alabama in 1963, at the height of the civil rights movement.

The poem starts out with an eager little girl wanting to march for freedom. The mother explains how treacherous the march could become showing her fear for her daughters life. The mood swings back and forth until finally the mother's fear overcomes the child's desire and the child is sent to church where it will be safe. The tempo seems to pick up in the last couple of paragraphs to emphasize the mothers distraught on hearing the explosion and finding her child's shoe.

Answer 3

this is about the bombing of that church in birmingham. it's a historical event, you can google it. the poem is about how the mother didn't want her daughter to go to a freedom rally (african american rights) and sends her to church because it's supposed to be safe there. some kids were killed in the bombing, and it was racially motivated (black church, KKK sh*t or something).

and the mother was racing through the streets to get to the church.

Answer 4

they aren't exactly grammatically correct. "no one would knows"you dont need the s "when he turns light he thought maybe this isn't the best" use "turned" and write to the light. put a comma in between light and he. use a capital I for the word "i" thats all I think.

Answer 5

Inevitability.

Answer 6

#1 sir