- The “Ballad Of Birmingham” is about the bombing of Birmingham, an instance where a bomb was placed under a church and went off killing four young girls.
- The first line of third person narration in the ballad is line 17: “She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,”
- A few phrases in the poem have been added to put emphasis on the innocence and youth of the young girl in the poem. The phrases “Mother dear,” and “No, baby, no” show us that the girl is still quite young and respectful. They also use the phrase “small brown hands” to push the fact that this is a young black girl, who is still only a child.
- The use of two different perspectives of narration in writing helps to show the change of tone for the second half of the poem. The first half of the poem uses dialogue to establish characters and personalities, while the second half uses third person narration to show what the characters are doing. At the end of the second half of the poem, it switches back to dialogue to show the mothers grief and anguish, and to show the absence of the daughter.
- In the ballad Dudley Randal has used several speech techniques to show different ideas. He uses assonances such as ”clubs and guns” and “sacred place” to make the poem flow better. Alliteration, eg: “her eyes grew wet and wild”, is used to put emphasis on the emotions the characters are feeling. Metaphors like “The dogs are fierce and wild” are used to show how violent and animalistic the extreme right wing hate groups are and how frightened the mother is of them attacking her daughter.
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