The Ballad Metaphor and Burned Bacon

I am curious about the use of “a Ballad” as a metaphor for the murder of Emit Till from the perspective of the “Maid Mild.” Brooks seems to be suggesting that racism operates on society in a similar manner as poetic form operates on narratives. The speaker makes reference to certain tropes common in ballads from her school days such as the “Fine Prince,” the “Dark Villain” and the “Maid Mild.” In the ballad, theses tropes produce a purified or chivalric sort of love. Similarly, these tropes structure the speaker’s perception so as to purify her role in the murder. Brooks upsets this purified narrative by complicating the form of the poem (the use of enjambment, the lack of a rhyme scheme) and by interrupting the speaker’s cognition (the burned bacon). These complications allow the reader to see how the violence inflicted on Emit Till did not happen in a vacuum. Brooks indicates that the ignorance plays a role in the line “the ballads she never quite understood.” Brooks also references the historical construction of African-American bodies as inherently violent in the line “when history is cluttered with the bones of many eaten knights and princesses.” It is important to note that while the family portrayed in this poem is representative of real historical figures, some of the details of their lives are imagined. These imagined details, such as the history of domestic violence, seem to widen the scope of Brooks’ argument about violence.