Compare/Contrast Poems

Compare/contrast

In Dudley Randall’s poem “Ballad of Birmingham” and Langston Hughes’s poem “Mother to son” are two poems of two different mothers wanting the best for their child. In the poem “Ballad of Birmingham,” Dudley Randall illustrates a conflict between a child who wishes to march for civil rights and a mother who wishes only to protect her child. Much of this poem is read as dialogue between a mother and a child in a way that paints a picture of both character’s feelings. “Ballad of Birmingham” follows the metrical structure of a traditional folk ballad. Ballads utilize the ballad stanza which consists of four lines that rhyme in an abcb rhyme scheme. In other words, in each stanza, the second and fourth lines rhyme, while the first and third lines do not. The metrical, rhythmical pattern of the ballad decides how many syllables will be stressed in each of those four lines; the first and third lines of each stanza will contain four emphasized syllabic stresses, while the second and fourth will each contain three. Repeating lines or refrains also appear as stock features in ballads, and “Ballad of Birmingham” offers such repetition in two forms. First of all, the stanzas that document the mother and daughter’s question-and-answer session quickly construct a formula to be followed, so that we can predict what is likely to come next in this conversation between the two; we know that the daughter will ask to go march, give a reason why she should be allowed, and that the mother will say no. The form that “no” will take appears as the poem’s only real refrain and is its second instance of repetition: “No, baby, no, you may not go,” the mother says each time her daughter poses the question. In Langston Hughes’ poem “Mother to Son,” A mother empowers her son with words of wisdom that also captures the reader. Langston Hughes ' poem, "Mother to Son" is reminiscent of the well-known expression "let 's have a father to son chat"; however, in this case, the saying is altered to "mother to son.” Since “Mother to Son” is a dramatic monologue, the primary purpose of Hughes’s word choices and line arrangements is to quickly and convincingly capture the speech and character of a disadvantaged African-American mother. To more closely approximate the rhythms and folk diction, or word choices, of a black persona or character, Hughes uses a number of poetic and literary techniques. He writes in free verse, meaning the lines are un-rhymed and vary in length and meter (the pattern of beats in each line). Specifically, the number of syllables per line varies from one (line 7 is “Bare.”) to ten (in line 20, which iambic pentameter). Hughes uses other markers of African-American speech, such as contractions and colloquial uses of the verb “to be”: “I’se been a-climbin’ on” and such variations as “set” for “sit”: “Don’t you set down.” Hughes sought to represent African-American speech with dignity and verve for, in the hands of many white American writers, black dialect was used to perpetuate stereotypes of black ignorance. After carefully interpreting the mother’s insights and messages to her son, the reader recognizes that in “Mother to Son” and many of Hughes’s poems, uneducated diction signifies a lifetime of reduced opportunity rather than ignorance or lazy speech. The scene Randall describes in “Ballad of Birmingham” provides the reader with a personalized view of the struggle against racism fought by the demonstrators and activists of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Relying on his readers’ awareness of the events in Birmingham, Randall dramatizes what happened there from a unique, intimate perspective in order to bring the situation into the sharpest possible focus for his reader. The mother and daughter who converse throughout the first four stanzas of the poem provide a very human, sympathetic portrait of how the struggle against racism affected real people. The poem also illustrates the fact that it is racism — not the struggle against it — that threatens the safety of individuals in society. The mother in this poem makes an understandable mistake by judging Birmingham’s civil rights demonstrations as too dangerous for a child to participate in. Yet the central and poignant irony of Randall’s ballad is precisely this: that racism endangers the little girl’s life at least as powerfully, if not far more, than any action she may take against it. By arguing that others will be marching with her as she does in lines 9 and 10, the child expresses a central tenet of any struggle for social and political equality — namely, united we stand, but divided we fall. In the poem “mother to son,” The difficulties faced by the mother in this poem are symbolized by tacks, splinters, bare floors, and dark hallways — all signs of poverty. In associating this particular black American speaker with these particular images, Hughes is able to hint at the injustice in the relationship between poverty and race. This mother certainly is not poor because she is lazy or weak-willed, since we can see her determination to work and succeed in almost every line. For a woman of such determination to be kept this poor indicates that hardship is not a moral issue, but is related to an external cause, such as the limits that are put on people because of their race. The point that the mother is making in this poem is that life is a struggle and that her son would be mistaken to expect anything better than difficulty. She mentions symbols of her struggle that reflect her own life, apparently to show that she knows the subject from firsthand experience, thus assuring him that his own problems are not being unfairly apportioned to him and him alone. Because she has to explain this to her son as if it is news to him, we can assume that she was not the type of person to complain about her troubles while her son was growing up: he might easily have interpreted her quietness as a sign that she was comfortable with her life and, from this, assumed that her life indeed was a crystal stair. In conclusion “Ballad of Birmingham” and “Mother to son” both are two poems of mothers speaking to their child with words of wisdom or to protect the child. “The Ballad of Birmingham” deftly illustrates the dangers of looking at the world through a window. It shows that the solutions to the problems that engulf the world come not by avoiding the troubles but by becoming educated about such problems and involvement in the issues surrounding them. In “Mother to son,” Hughes manages to muster up the image of a mother lovingly, yet firmly, talking to her son about life. The advice is simple but pertinent to the poetic theme; in order to overcome hurtles in life, a person must possess courage and determination.

Work Cited
Hughes, Langston. “Mother to Son” Eds. Nicolas Delbanco, Alan Cheuse, McGraw-hill, 2010. Print.
Randall, Dudley. “Ballad of Birmingham” Eds. Nicolas Delbanco, Alan Cheuse. McGraw-hill, 2010. Print.

Cited: Hughes, Langston. “Mother to Son” Eds. Nicolas Delbanco, Alan Cheuse, McGraw-hill, 2010. Print. Randall, Dudley. “Ballad of Birmingham” Eds. Nicolas Delbanco, Alan Cheuse. McGraw-hill, 2010. Print.