The poem questions a young girl's desire to participate in a freedom march despite her mother's protection. The mother fears for her daughter's safety from the "guns and jails" of segregation. She believes the "dogs are fierce and wild" outside and refuses to let her daughter go, worrying the "guns will fire." The alliteration in the poem like "Wet and Wild" convey the mother's frantic emotions about her daughter amid the discrimination they faced.

1. 'The Ballad of Birmingham' questions
1.The child feels like she should help out in the situation of
discrimination:
“And march the streets of Birmingham
To make our country free”
She is still only young but thirsts for freedom, and is planning to
show her commitment to her nation by attending a freedom march.
2.The mother is too protective of her child, to let her daughter go
out to join in on a freedom march:
“No, baby, no, you may not go,
for I fear those guns will fire”
All of the negative language that is being used gives us a sense that
the mother is intent on keeping her child from going down town.
She believes that there will be shooting, and will not, cannot let her
daughter go.
3.The world outside, the world of reality, is a terrible place,
according to the mother:
“For the dogs are fierce and wild,
And clubs and hoses, guns and jails”
All of these terrible things are tangible evidence of the segregation
that was. The mother knows, all of the above aren't good for a
child, and insists that her daughter not go where those punishments
lie.
4.Alliteration in the ballad may not be obvious, but they are still
there and are significant:
“and you may sing in the Children's Choir”, “Her eyes grew Wet
and Wild”
Wet and Wild suggest how frantic the mother was feeling after
she'd heard the horrific explosion, with the knowledge that her
child was somewhere outside. Children and Choir gives us an

2. image of an angelic, innocent young girl.