This shows how much the mother cares about her daughter. Since the reader views the daughter as an innocent and the mother as very caring, they are devastated when the innocent child is killed and the mother loses the child she cares for so much.
The language that Dudley uses throughout the poem helps develop the setting. Setting gives the reader insight into a character, suggests symbolic meanings and insinuates the theme of the work. Randall uses setting to give the reader insight into the characters. In line 3 and 4 of the poem, the child says " And march the streets of Birmingham/ in a Freedom March today?" Here she informs the reader of the setting; in these two lines the reader establishes that the setting is Alabama during the Civil Rights Movement. During this time period according to the Internet article " Four Little Girls and the Fight For Freedom", Birmingham, Alabama was segregated and dominated by "white, racist power structure". The article explained how African Americans during this time period anticipated a change. Therefore, from the setting, the reader knows that the two are in the midst of a struggle for their civil rights. Most American readers are familiar with the Civil Rights Movement and know many blacks were killed by racist whites. .
The point of view in which "Ballad of Birmingham" is written affects many points in the story. It mainly affects the reader's understanding of the events that occur in the poem. Because the poem is written in third person narrative, the readers do not have a limited view of the situation. For example, irony is formed in line 24 when the readers know more about the situation than the characters. In line 24 the reader knows that this will be the mother's last smile. At this point, we know that the child will be harmed but the mother does not. If the poem were not written in third person we would not know these things and the element of irony would not have been created.