Irony and Imagery in 'Ballad of Birmingham'

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The poem “Ballad of Birmingham”, written by Dudley Randall, is about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. In this bombing four innocent children were killed and about 20 others injured. In this poem poetic devices such as irony, rhyme, and imagery play a major role in being able to see how far racial hatred has gone. The main irony in this story is that the mother told her daughter to go to church instead of the streets of Birmingham because it will be safer. Who would have ever known that the KKK would have decided to bomb the church that day. This is known as a situational irony because she sends her daughter to church instead so she can be safe but at the end of the day it was not safe. This poem is

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