Irony In The Poem The Ballad Of Birmingham

Literary Device #3- Irony

Irony is derived from Greek’s eirōneia, meaning ‘simulated ignorance.’ Irony is a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.

Example: “No, baby,no, you may not go/For I fear those guns will fire./But you may go to church instead/And sing in the children’s choir” (Lines 13-16) Randall “The Ballad of Birmingham”

Function

Context: Prior to this stanza, a mother’s daughter asks to join the Freedom March in Birmingham, but unfortunately, the mother rejects this request because she fears of the dangers of sending her child to a potentially violent strike full of “clubs and hoses, guns and jails” (Line 7). Despite the Freedom March’s possible positive impact for the black community, protecting her daughter from the harsh realities of the world is the mother’s first priority. As an

The whole poem itself is a reference to a real bombing on September 15th, 1963. On this day, there is a bomb that explodes in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and the explosion kills four young black schoolgirls. Although the poem does not explicitly say which girl out of the four is the main character, readers can assume that this poem is a depiction of the the real bombings. Relating back to the irony, the fact that this poem is essentially real leaves the readers in even more shock and pain. This nonfiction aspect of the poem strengthens the theme of “violence is everywhere, no matter where one goes” because it is an actual problem, not some fairy tale. There is an actual mother out there who is going through this grief. Stories that are made from true events mean that they have actual implications in the world. Since a church is actually the victim of a bombing in real life, readers cannot look at them the same way because of the irony and the