Ballad of Birmingham

First, the titles of “The Whipping” and “Ballad of Birmingham” are different and contribute to differentiate the purposes of the poem. “The Whipping” sounds harsh and relates to people’s fears. Everyone had whipping from the parents at young age. Everyone often feared whipping as well. This title refers to the experience of the narrator, “[…] the fear worse than blows that hateful words could bring, the face that I no longer knew or loved…” (Hayden). This title contributes to the purpose by referring to the punishment that young people mostly fear and is part of the hard times people has to go through. In comparison, “The Whipping” title is different than �

Lastly, the metaphors of “The Whipping” and “Ballad of Birmingham” are different and contribute to differentiate the purposes of the poems. In “The Whipping”, an old woman is whipping the boy for his wrongdoings. The metaphor, “His tears are like rainy weather to woundlike memories […]” (Hayden) refers to the painfulness of the hard times that people have to go through. This contributes to the purpose because the metaphor contains sadness of the hard times. In comparison, while the metaphor in “The Whipping” relates to the painfulness of hard times, the metaphor in “Ballad of Birmingham” relates to the soldiers fighting each other. In “Ballad of Birmingham”, when a boy asks his mother if the boy could go outside and play, the mother said, “No, baby, no, you may not go, for the dogs are fierce and wild […]” (Randall). Here, the woman related the soldiers as the dogs. Because humans become wild, fierce dogs at war, hungry to spew each other’s blood. This metaphor contributes to the purpose of the poem by supporting the outside factors of the setting. The woman thinks the church is the safest place, but there are human fighting outside which could cause destructions of any places. The metaphor in “The Whipping” and “Ballad of Birmingham” are different

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