Ballad of Birmingham

“Ballad of Birmingham” is a narrative poem that comprises eight quatrains (stanzas of four lines) with the rhyme scheme ABCB—ballad stanza. The poem includes other elements of the ballad stanza. Most first and third lines of each stanza are in iambic tetrameter—four sets of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: “The mo | ther smiled | to know | her child” (Line 21). The second and fourth lines of each stanza generally are in iambic trimeter, three sets of a stressed syllable followed by an unstressed syllable: “In stead | of out | to play” (Line 2).

While the rhyme scheme is regular, there are notable departures from the overall meter. Several of the second lines include an extra syllable at the start or end, as in “For the dogs | are fierce | and wild” (Line 6). Such lines almost always come when the mother expresses her fear over her daughter’s safety, and the extra syllable shows how disruptive that fear is to the daily life of the mother. When the worst happens—the explosion—the meter disintegrates even further: “Cal ling | for her child” (Line 28).