Audible Voice - Ballad of Birmingham

Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

“Mother dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a Freedom March today?”

“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.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will go with me,

And march the streets of Birmingham

To make our country free.”

“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.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,

And bathed rose petal sweet,

And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,

And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child

Was in the sacred place,

But that smile was the last smile

To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,

Her eyes grew wet and wild.

She raced through the streets of Birmingham

Calling for her child.

She clasped through bits of glass and brick,

Then lifted out a shoe.

“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?”

This poem by Dudley Randall has a very clear audible voice. It starts off as a conversation between mother and child debating about where the child should go for the day. The reader can completely follow the conversation of the small boy wanting to march for freedom and the mother’s fears against her child participating in such a dangerous event.

Then it changes to the speaker’s voice describing the mothers joy that her child ended up going to the church instead of the freedom march. The readers feel the mother’s peacefulness from knowing her child is safe inside “the sacred place” (Randall l. 22).

When the speaker describes the mother’s immense fear and sadness when she learned that her “baby” was in the church that was bombed, the readers clearly feel this too (Randall l. 33).

Randall’s audible voice was simply clear throughout his entire poem. To me, this was written so well it was like listening to a story. I did not feel like I was reading, but I could hear the speaker throughout the entire poem.

Allusions in Ring around the Rosy

The song, “Ring around the Rosy” is known as a famous children’s song/rhyme. When first listening to it, it’s a happy song that children sing while playing a game. After looking into the song more, I found many allusions within it. The main allusion I found is within the song as a whole. Instead of being a happy children’s song it actually has connections with the Bubonic Plague. The verse, “Ashes! Ashes” is actually talking about, “The cremation of the dead bodies” <http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm>. The most surprising allusion I found was in the verse, “Ring around the Rosie”. I had always pictured a group of children holding hands going around a rose bush singing and dancing. However, this verse actually had to do with the plague’s symptoms. Which included, “a rosy red rash in the shape of a ring on the skin” <http://www.rhymes.org.uk/ring_around_the_rosy.htm>. As you can see, “Ring around the Rosy” is not just an innocent children’s song. It actually has a pretty dark meaning.

Unit 9 Poetry

I walk in the old street

I walk in the old street
to hear the beloved songs
afresh
this spring night.
Like the leaves -my loves wake-
not to be the same
or look tireless to the stars
and a ripped doorbell.

I think that the poem "I walk in the old street" written by Louis Zufofsky (page 665 in literature book) is a great example of a poem that has an audible voice. The poem has more of a conversational tone. Because the poem is written in first person, it seems that the speaker of the poem is speaking his thoughts directly to his audience. The first line, "I walk in the old street/ to hear the beloved songs/ afresh/ this spring night", is a pretty easy line to understand, it's like the speaker is talking directly to anyone who reads the poem. The reader can just picture this: a spring night, an old street. Also, the writer is probably trying to emphasize the word "afresh" because it's put on a line by itself. It goes on to say, "Like the leaves-my loves wake-/ not to be the same/ or look tireless to the stars/ and a ripped doorbell. I don't totally understand this line; the "ripped doorbell" kind of threw me off. There's still an audible voice, because they use the word "my", as if they're talking right to you.

Poem

I don't usually post to the class blog, as I think if it as a student-centered space. However, I would like to share a poem that has been central to my formation as not only a scholar, but also as a person.

This poem was recited by one of my college professors in a British literature course. He recited all our poems off the top of his head and with such dignity. I have a lousy memory and have no hope of ever achieving that feat. However, soon after hearing this poem, I decided to become an English major (I had been leaning towards a degree in psychology or social work). I will give you the poem and then explain how it resonates with me.

"I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud"

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

--William Wordsworth


The poem's theme reflects my core beliefs about the value of introspective thought and the necessity, sometimes, for solitude. In the poem, Wordsworth writes about an experience of seeing a "crowd" of daffodils. He talks about the experience, which as simple enough, but then he realizes later how significant this experience was to him. He, in a reflective and solitary state, is able to conjure up the memory ("inward eye") and it has the power to allow him to transcend his present situation ("on the couch..in vacant or pensive mood"). He re-creates the "pleasure" of the experience once again. This is why I value travel so much. I want the experiences that I can recall that lift me from the routine of my every day existence. When I can recall portions of my two trips to the UK, I can hear certain things such as the anonymous voice on the tube calling out "Next stop: Waterloo Station. Please mind the gap." I can visualize small, particular details of certain places we visited and I am somehow transformed by the memory.

So anyway, this is the poem, as I often say, that turned my into an English major. And the rest, as they say, is history.

"I Stand Here Ironing"

Motherhood is difficult anyway you look at it; we all have to make decisions with doubt in the backs of our minds. The story “I Stand Here Ironing” has to do with that doubt. A mother tells her story of the decisions she made for her eldest daughter, Emily, during the depression.
Even as a child Emily was withdrawn and had no wanting of human comfort. Her mother not knowing, interpreted Emily sense of solitary as a sign she wasn't needed for emotional security.
Her mother points out that maybe she took Emily's being introvert wrong. Emily does need that mother figure and love just as her sibling recieve it now, "Now when it is to late (as if she would let me hold and comfort her like I do the others"(pg.285).
She starts to depend on Emily to help with the other children. Her mothers sense of regret comes out in the comment "I was working, there were four smaller ones now, there was not time for her. She had to help be a mother, and housekeeper, and shopper"(pg.285).
In the end we all hope that our children are happy, but it sounds as if Emily's mother has given up hope. One of the sentences in the last paragraph "So all that is in her will not bloom..." No mother should give up hope that their child will reach their full potential.
Parents struggle everyday wondering if they have made the right decisions and questioning how their children will end up confident adults. I am a mother of three sons and hope that I have no regrets. I make choices for them but have to be open to there needs and emotions. Listen to your children watch for the unsaid signs that something is wrong and do the best to help them.

I Stand Here Ironing

Motherhood is developed as a central theme in this story because the story focuses on Emily and what she was like when she was growing up as told by her mother. Her mother tells of how she had to send her away so she could work and send her to nursery school so she could work also. Emily's mother blames herself for Emily's lack of ability to learn and her self-esteem. The sotry tells of how Emily was raised by her mother.
I am not a mother but my mother was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school when she had me. I can somewhat relate to Emily. My mom had to put me in daycare when she went to school for the last three years of high school. My mom also worked a part time job so I was in daycare then. I don't remember a lot about it but she said she hated leaving me at daycare because she didn't think I was taken care of the way I should have been. She would often miss school so that I wouldn't have to go to daycare. After my mom graduated high school she stayed at home with me and had two more children.
My mom like Emily's mom did miss out on more of my childhood then she did on my siblings. Emily lived in a different era then I, but our mother's had somewhat similar situations. Emily's mother had to work and my mother had to finish high school and work.

A&P Comments

In the story A&P by John Updike, Sammy is pressed to deal with 2 major conflicts; human vs. self and human vs. human. In the beginning of the story he expresses his discontent with his job, his boss, the customers and his future.
He tells us the story of his co-worker, which dreams of being manager of the store and how that isn’t really what he wants. Sammy refers to the customers as “flocks of sheep”, all pushing carts around the store mindless of there surroundings letting us know that he is unappreciated
When he notices the girls walking around the store, without a care or concern about what others thought, I think it gave him a sense of hope. When the manager approaches the girls about how they are dressed, they seemed embarrassed. However I don’t believe that their embarrassment was caused by how they were dressed but by how the manager was talking to them. Before they entered the store, he was on the road to do the job that was expected of him. Sammy has always been forced to meet the expectation of his boss and his family, but what does he really want for himself?
I think that seeing the girls stick up for themselves, when the manager is expressing his distaste, gives Sammy the courage to quite. I also think that he is trying to impress the girls, showing them that he is worth their attention, not just a cashier. The gesture of setting down his apron and bowtie, making sure to let us know that they belong to the store, it a major turning point of Sammy’s life. He has set his future in motion, not knowing what it will bring, and will never be able to return to the mindless past.
Throughout the story he is basically telling us that he is not happy and does not know what the future of this job would be. Know he has to contend with the decisions he has made, learn not to think of what would have been and look towards the future.

Conflicts in A&P

There are two types of conflict in the story, A&P, written by John Updike.

First, there is a human vs. human conflict. When the three girls walk into A&P in just their bathing suits, there's sort of an unspoken conflict between them and the rest of the customers in the store. "There was no doubt, this jiggled them [the other customers]" (221). The "houseslaves" (221) obviously did not agree with the way the girls were dressed. It seems as if there was some sort of tension in the air: the customers horrified of the way the girls are dressed and the girls trying to hold their own and stand up for themselves. This conflict is resolved when the girls leave the supermarket.

Another human vs. human conflict is when Sammy tells Lengel that he wouldn't have had to embarrass the girls and that he quit. Lengel tells Sammy that "[he] doesn't think [he] knows what [he's] saying" (223) and that Sammy doesn't want to do this to his mom and dad.
I think that shortly after Sammy tells Lengel he quits he regrets saying that. He knows how hard the world is going to be, and how hard it will be for his mom and dad if he doesn't have a job. Lengel tries to persuade Sammy to stay. Sammy deals with a conflict within himself when he's trying to decide whether he should really quit or not. But, he says, "It seems to me that once you begin a gesture it's fatal not to go through with it" (223). I think that this was his deciding factor. In a sense, part of the conflict is resolved when he takes his apron and bow tie off and walks out of the store, symbolizing that he quit his job. The conflict isn't resolved when the story ends, however, because Sammy doesn't what the future will be like as a result of quitting at the A&P.

Story of an Hour; Chopin

This was the second class that I had to read The Story of an Hour, and every time I am shocked at the end, and I also am a little amused at the irony of Mrs. Mallard's situation. Mrs. Mallard had to deal with a lot of cosmic irony in this story; the author plays with her, letting her get a glimpse of freedom, then suddenly snatches it away after a brief moment. There are also periods of situational irony of when we (the readers) believe that Mrs. Mallard is truly free and going to live out a really long life, when all of a sudden she dies; while her husband is thought to be dead, but is really alive. I thought that it was unique that Mrs. Mallard finds out her husband is dead, locks herself in her room, and strangely finds some joy and liberation in his death. She then heads down stairs and finds her husband coming home, and dies of shock and disappointment, rather than joy. Page 193 paragraphs 5 and 6, include a lot of imagery such as: "The delicious breath of rain was in the air." (Chopin 193). "In the street below a peddler was crying his wares." (Chopin 193) And, "There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that had met and piled on above the other in the west facing her window." (Chopin 193). The author uses imagery, metaphors, and irony to enhance the meaning of the story by allowing us to feel the emotions of the character, while the irony enhances the bittersweetness of the ending.

Sources:

Chopin. "The Story of an Hour." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Comp. Kirszner & Mandell. Boston, MA:
Thomson Wadsworth, 2007.

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