Come round by my side and i’ll sing you a song.
i’ll sing it so softly, it’ll do no one wrong.
on birmingham sunday the blood ran like wine,
and the choirs kept singing of freedom.
that cold autumn morning no eyes saw the sun,
and addie mae collins, her number was one.
at an old baptist church there was no need to run.
and the choirs kept singing of freedom,
the clouds they were grey and the autumn winds blew,
and denise mcnair brought the number to two.
the falcon of death was a creature they knew,
and the choirs kept singing of freedom,
the church it was crowded, but no one could see
that cynthia wesley’s dark number was three.
her prayers and her feelings would shame you and me.
and the choirs kept singing of freedom.
young carol robertson entered the door
and the number her killers had given was four.
she asked for a blessing but asked for no more,
and the choirs kept singing of freedom.
on birmingham sunday a noise shook the ground.
and people all over the earth turned around.
for no one recalled a more cowardly sound.
and the choirs kept singing of freedom.
the men in the forest they once asked of me,
how many black berries grew in the blue sea.
and i asked them right with a tear in my eye.
how many dark ships in the forest?
the sunday has come and the sunday has gone.
and i can’t do much more than to sing you a song.
i’ll sing it so softly, it’ll do no one wrong.
and the choirs keep singing of freedom.
analyze the structure of the poem “birmingham sunday” and explain why fariña made certain structural decisions. use evidence from the text to support your analysis.
(answer) - “birmingham sunday” was written as a song and is in the form of a broadside ballad. the structure was formed in part to match the old scottish folk song “i once loved a lass.” i think fariña may have chosen to use an old melody because he wanted the message to be the main focus of the song. the familiarity of the melody meant that people may have been able to sing along, so all they needed to do was to learn the words. the song has a pattern, which is broken occasionally. the main pattern for syllables in a stanza is 11, 11, 11, and 10. however, fariña occasionally breaks from this pattern, almost as if stressing particular messages. the first break is in line 7: “at an old baptist church there was no need to run.” this line is 12 syllables instead of the usual 11. the line is also heavy with irony, so it could be that fariña wanted to emphasize its irony and foreshadow what will happen. the second break is in line 17: “and the number her killers had given was four,” referring to carol robertson. it is possible that this line was given an extra syllable (12 instead of 11) to emphasize carol, who was the last victim mentioned in the song. the syllable pattern does not break again until line 30: “and i can’t do much more than to sing you a song.” this could be to emphasize the that some felt as a result of the injustice. the song also utilized end rhyme. using letters to represent end rhymes, most stanzas (except the first) looked like this: aaab. it is interesting that the first stanza starts off not following this pattern. instead, it follows a rhyme pattern of aabc. the “b” that seems out of place happens to be the powerful line, “on birmingham sunday the blood ran like wine.” perhaps fariña wanted to keep this line, which utilizes figurative language to hint at the destruction, the topic of the song.