BALLAD ON BIRMINGHAM

BALLAD OF BIRMINGHAM
Anonymous

“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 clawed through bits of glass and brick,
Then lifted out a shoe.
“O, here’s the shoe my baby wore,
But, baby, where are you?”

The Road Not Taken

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I‑‑‑
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference!

RED RED ROSE

A RED, RED ROSE

By Robert Burns (1759-1796)

O my luve is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O my luve is like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,

So deep in luve am I,

And I will luve thee still, my dear,

Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,

And the rocks melt wi' the sun!

And I will love thee still, my dear,

While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel my only luve!

And fare thee weel a while.

And I will come again my luve,

Tho it were ten thousand miles.

An Analysis of “A Red, Red Rose”

Theory: Structuralism

Stanza 1:

O my luve is like a red, red rose,

That's newly sprung in June.

O my luve is like the melodie

That's sweetly played in tune.

The speaker is comparing the poem into two part, the first comparing his love to a rose. His love that always beautiful like a red rose for him and the second comparing his love to a melody which has a beautiful rhythmic movement.  The speaker also uses repetition  like in word “my luve's like” in lines 1 and 3, “that's newly” and “ that's sweetly”  in lines 2 and 4. 

Stanza 2:

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
  so deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
  Till a’ the seas gang dry.

The speaker addresses the young lady as bonnie (pretty). Bonnie is derived from the French word bon (good). In this poem also there’s repetition, in “luve” (line 2 and 3), and in the last line of the stanza, a' means all and gang means go. In this line 3 and 4 gives mean of the poem hyperbole (exaggerates)

Stanza 3:

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
 and the rocks melt wi’ the sun:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
while the sands o’ life shall run.

The speaker links the first line of the third stanza with the last line of the second stanza by repetition. The speaker continues hyperbole in the second lines (the rocks melt wi’ the sun) and the fourth lines (the sands o’ life shall run). He also again gives the repetition in the third line by repeating in the third line of the second stanza.

Stanza 4:  

And fare-thee-weel, my only Luve,
And fare-thee-weel, a while! 
And I will come again, my Luve,
Thou’ were ten thousand mile!

The speaker again purposes to his beloved, noting that though he must leave her for a while he will return for her even if he must travel ten thousand miles. There is repetition in the first and second lines, and hyperbole occurs in the last line. Fare-thee-weel means fare thee well.