Ballad Birmingham
An explication of poem "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley andall

An explication of poem "Ballad Birmingham" by Dudley andall

The current essay is an explication of the poem "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley andall. Dudley wrote this poem in 1965 after reflecting on the incident of Ballad Birmingham Church dynamite that occurred on September 15, 1963. The poem is in context of African-American freedom movement of 1960s when African-Americans were fighting for their identity in the United States. This freedom movement was a fight against the laws of America that prevent African-Americans to play a part in the society. (obyn, 138). The author has explained in details the story of the poem, the symbols used in the poem, the structure and setting of the poem as well as the message that Dudley wants to convey through this poem.

Thesis Statement

The general insinuations in the form of an illustration as well as the….

Night the Crystals Broke
This ballad begins

On a far-away shore

A land she knew so well.

This land was green, filled with tropical sun

And her house was filled with mirth

Which also lay etched on their faces

Then the fires came

The smoke from the Ark

And the disintegration of the star

Quick, Quick,

They left

Quick Quick

They left

Her belongings stuffed

In a bag the size of her heart

Which beat

Faster Faster

When the arms of that Statue

Embraced her.

This ballad conveys the powerful theme of anti-Semitism and the experience of immigration. The speaker need not be anyone famous, although it seems that the speaker might be referring to an ancestor. Musing on the immigrant experience from the perspective of generations later conveys a powerful message of freedom and hope. Although the ideas could be developed better, and it has an irregular meter that poses rhythmic problems, the poem does fulfill the basic tenets of a lyrical ballad. The repetition of words like….

"O, here's the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?" (25-8)

These images become more powerful when expressed through the mother's eyes.

The tone of this poem is important because it commands attention and respect without screaming and demanding righteousness. The daughter represents the ideals behind the civil rights movement and the poem's lullaby-like quality forces readers to actually listen to what the poet is saying. For example, we are forewarned of danger when we read:

"No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren't good for a little child" (5-8).

Here the mother realizes the danger involved and the poet knows about the danger of a racism that is passive aggressive.

"Ballad of Birmingham," captures a bit more than history when it looks into the painful experience of a mother who tried to do the right thing. The poem illustrates how we can….

One who loves should not need to speak of it so frequently if he intends rather on showing it. Burns' "Luve" is merely to draw attention to two things: her charms and the emotions they inspire in him.
Thus, Burns' ode is not to a girl -- it is to himself. It is distinctly modern in this sense, just as Cervantes' poet shepherds mooning over the loss of innocence in the girl they have all adored sing not so much for her but for the sorrow in their own hearts. Gerard Manley Hopkins put it more aptly: "Margaret, are you grieving… / & #8230;It is the blight man was born for / It is Margaret you mourn for."

However, Burns is not mourning (though the object of his affections may be): he is exalting. Here is the modern ballad in all its glory: it exalts not the beloved but the power….

Frost, Hughes, Alexie
The Meaning of "Home" in Frost's "Hired Hand," Hughes' "Landlord" and Alexie's "I ill Redeem"

Robert Frost writes in "The Death of the Hired Hand," "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in" (122-3). Implicit in these lines is the notion that "home" carries certain rules. "Home" is not just a place devoid of higher meaning, but an abstract idea -- a concept bound by a principle of belonging, of submitting, of caring. Just as Langston Hughes shows in "Ballad of the Landlord" (with the tension between negligent landlord and suffering tenant) or as Sherman Alexie shows in "hat You Pawn I ill Redeem" (Jackson sharing a portion of his winnings with Mary, whom he considers family -- "It's an Indian thing"), the principles of "home" are understood and upheld by those who realize its deeper meaning. This paper….

Community and the Impact on the Individual
How do individuals exist as part of a community and what does this means to a person's individuality? This is a key question explored by Zora Neale Hurston in Their Eyes ere atching God and by Carson McCullers in Ballad Of The Sad Cafe. Zora Neale Hurston and Carson McCullers both include a setting that represents the community. In Their Eyes ere atching God the setting is the porch, while in Ballad Of The Sad Cafe the setting is the cafe. The two settings both represent people existing as part of a community, rather than individually. The two settings also represent the conflicts that occur because people exist as part of a community. Overall, Zora Neale Hurston and Carson McCullers both show the conflict that occurs as an individual tries to align their own needs with the needs of the larger community. In….

Night the Crystals Broke
Write where you got inspiration from?

The inspiration from this poem comes from my grandmother and her family, who lived through the pogroms and just before the Nazis took over Hungary. The title refers to the Kristallnacht, the event in which the Nazis burned synagogues and their religious items, and broke the windows. They also broke the windows of the local businesses. This poem also refers to the journey that was scary and arduous, over the Atlantic in the ship to Ellis Island. The statue at the end of the poem is the Statue of Liberty, which welcomed the "poor" and "hungry" masses, like my grandmother's people.

(2) Which author and poem did you refer to when writing this poem?

There is no one author or poem I referred to here. This is a completely original work. However, it is written in the form of a ballad. The ballad….

Your answer should be at least five sentences long.
The Legend of Arthur

Lesson 1 Journal Entry # 9 of 16

Journal Exercise 1.7A: Honor and Loyalty

1. Consider how Arthur's actions and personality agree with or challenge your definition of honor. Write a few sentences comparing your definition (from Journal 1.6A) with Arthur's actions and personality.

2. Write a brief paragraph explaining the importance or unimportance of loyalty in being honorable.

Lesson 1 Journal Entry # 10 of 16

Journal Exercise 1.7B: Combining Sentences

Complete the Practice Activity on page 202 of your text. After completing this activity, read over your Essay Assessment or another journal activity you've completed.

* Identify three passages that could be improved by combining two or more sentences with coordinating or subordinating conjunctions. Below the practice activity in your journal, write the original passages and the revised sentences you've created.

* Be sure to indicate which journal or writing assignment they came from.

The….

Analysis of passage from The Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Other Stories by Carson McCullers (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1951; rpt. 1971), pp.3-5

Carson McCullers' short story "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe" is set in a town that is immediately established as remote, rural, and Southern: it is located near a cotton mill, there are peach trees all over the area, and there is only a single church. Even the buses are three miles away, which suggest the stranded and isolated nature of the residents. The main street is only two miles long, and there is "nothing whatsoever to do" during the long, hot summers. Even the nearest train stop (the significantly named 'Society' City) is far away. The largest building looks lonely and is boarded up completely. This large building, half-painted and left unfinished becomes a kind of metaphor for the town, as well as the woman who….

Tori Amos
In music, most artists will face a number of challenges. This is because there are struggles they will endure to become successful. At the same time, they have to be able to remain relevant and adapt with the music. This means creating a unique sound which can combine a number of elements together. In the case of Tori Amos, she was able to create a one of a kind genre that took the traditions of the singer -- songwriter from the 1970s and augmented them with an alternative -- punk sound. This created a new form of women entertainer, who wanted to use this as a way to highlight social messages in their songs. While at the same time, it is giving women a sense of empowerment in the way they carried themselves and performed.

As a result, there will be an examination of the influences of Tori Amos and….

His belief that literature is a magical blend of thought and emotion is at the very heart of his greatest works, in which the unreal is often made to seem real.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge effectively freed British (and other) poetry from its 18th century Neo-classical constraints, allowing the poetic (and receptive) imagination to roam free.

orks Cited

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Kublai Khan. In The Portable Coleridge, I.A. Richards

Ed.). New York: Penguin, 1987. 157-158.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. In The Portable Coleridge, I.A. Richards

Ed.). New York: Penguin, 1987. 80-105.

Moore, Christopher. "Introduction." Samuel Taylor Coleridge. New York:

Grammercy, 1996. 10.

Nokes, David. Raillery and Rage: A Study of Eighteenth Century Satire. New York: St. Martin's, 1987. 99.

Pope, Alexander, The Rape of the Lock. Representative Poetry Online. Retrieved September 22, 2005, from: http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:0gO7fceq2_

AJ:eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1644.html+text+of+Pope%27s+The+Rape+of+the+Lock&hl=en&lr=&strip=1.html>.

Romanticism." ikipedia. 3 Apr. 2005. Retrieved September 22, 2005, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanticism.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)" Prentice Hall Literature:

Author Biographies. Retrieved September 22, 2005, from: http://www.phschool.com/atschool/literature/author_biographies/coleridge_….

Charles Ivey Song Lyrics
"Charlie Rutlage" by Charles Ives (1920), from Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads

The song "Charlie Rutlage" by composer Charles Ives was released in 1920 as part of Ives' collection Cowboy Songs and Other Ballads, and the work is distinctive of his signature style. The lyrics are mournful and melancholy, as Ives eulogizes "another good cowpuncher (who) has gone to meet his fate," telling the story of Charlie Rutlage, a hand on the XIT ranch who was killed after his horse fell and crushed him underneath. Ives sings the opening lines of the song with a celebratory bravado, lauding Rutlage by saying "Twill be hard to find another that's as liked as well as he" to suggest that the fallen cowboy was beloved by his friends and family. In my estimation, this passage is used by Ives to form an emotional connection between his listener and the titular….

In other words, the simile is more concrete and memorable than the green hill it is supposed to describe. The lack of 'realism' of the poem becomes even more evident through the use of such strange language: the use of language is more important than describing something 'real' like a hill.
If this were not extravagant enough, Coleridge piles yet another image on top of this one that asks the reader to imagine in terms of 'as if': "A mighty fountain momently was forced: / Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst/Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, / or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail." Again, the image of the fountain is actually less striking than the simile, the grain being threshed and the fierce hail.

Images piles on top of images, similes upon similes to the point that by the time the reader arrives in Kubla's palace, he or she has forgotten….

This, along with the older Psalter by trenhold and Hopkins, was the main influence of the Bay Psalm Book printed during 1640 in Massachusetts. This can be compared with the first musical influences on and compositions by Li Jinhui. The traditional forms were explored thoroughly before new ideas in music were explored.
Culturally, the new Americans at the time were deeply religious, following the Puritan tradition on which they based their way of life. Their music therefore reflected this tradition, and the earliest genres were mainly religious in nature. As such, the musical format was unaccompanied by musical instruments, as these were viewed as secular and therefore sinful. The same type of division can be seen in the later genres of Asian music, where Cantopop began to lose its popularity in the face of new and more trendy developments. In contrast, however, the Chinese does not have as clear a….

Florence + the Machine -- "Kiss With a Fist"
Florence + The Machine's "Kiss With a Fist" is a ballad that describes the volatile relationship that the singer had with a former boyfriend. In the song, the singer contends that any sort of emotional response is better than none. Florence sings, "A kick in the teeth is good for some/A kiss with a fist is better than none." In the song, violence is not limited to one party, but rather is reciprocated by both people in the relationship. The song describes all the terrible things that the couple do to each other from hitting, kicking, slapping, and smashing plates over the head. Despite the violent tendencies of both parties, the singer contends that they can force their relationship to work. This idea is expressed through the lyric "break the lock if it don't fit."

The tone of the song's lyrics does not….