Catherine Bem

Period: 4

3-18-10

Ballad of Birmingham V.S. The Seven Ages of Man

The two poems of “Ballad of Birmingham” and “The Seven Ages of Man”

both contain some similar poetry elements, yet are completely different types of

poems with different topics. Both poems contain metaphors and sensory details, yet

one happens to be a free verse poem, “The Seven Ages of Man”, and the other a

ballad, “Ballad of Birmingham”.

“The Seven Ages of Man”, by William Shakespeare, explains the opinion

that life is a stage. The entire poem is an extended metaphor; it explains the life and

stages of an infant all the way through to the stage of old age. This poem celebrates

each section of every part of someone’s life.

“Ballad of Birmingham”, by Dudly Randall, shows us the conversation

between a mother and child. When the child wants to protest, the mother says no,

instead making sure her child attend church that day. We later see the irony of the

story when the church ends up getting bombed and the child is never found by their

mother. This poem expressed both irony and the connection and love between a

mother and child.

These two poems, though written in different styles, both have in common

their contents of metaphors and various sensory details. Although they do not share

the same meter or sound devices, “The Seven Ages of Man” having blank verse,
and therefore no meter, and “Ballad of Birmingham” having rhythm and rhyme, its

every second and fourth lines rhyming. These two poems made me feel very

different, in “The Seven Ages of Man”, I felt accomplished going through an entire

human’s life, but in “Ballad of Birmingham, I felt sadness because of the loss of a

human life.

These two poems gave me very different emotions, yet all the same

entertained me. I enjoyed the figurative language, sensory details, and metaphors of

both. The ideas were all different and presented differently too, but main

characteristics were still used in both.