Prayer Before Birth/Macneice Flashcards
(9 cards)
I am not yet born
This line introduces every stanza except the final one, reiterating to the reader that this “prayer” is coming from an foetus that is as yet nonexistent on earth. On one hand, the repetition of this phrase invokes a sense of innocence, associating the speaker with an unborn child. On the other hand, however, the speaker does not speak innocently; in fact, they are well aware of the society that awaits them and are critical of how that society operates. Paradoxically, it is the speaker’s “unborn” and presumably innocent nature that allows them this outside perspective on humanity.
‘…let them not spill me. Otherwise kill me’
In prayer before birth, the ways in which fears for the future are presented is by the rhyme ‘…let them not spill me. Otherwise kill me’, which implies that the unborn child is agitated thinking about the sorts of things it’s going to experiencewithin its lifetime. The poet is indicating that they’d rather not live, than be in a world where evil and suffering takes place, and that they abhor conflict with a passion. This makes the reader feel perplexed as we are presented with an unborn child who seems to know a lot about the world in which they have not yetexperienced. The verb ‘kill’ demonstrates the foetus is already aware of violence without actually undergoing violence. In addition, ‘spill me’ could suggest the child is aware of the fact that people are taken advantaged of and wishes that he/she does not have to face any problems of that sort. They fear being misused by others and repeatedly asks God to bring happiness and goodness to him, but he if doesn’t receive those things, he would much rather be ‘killed’
‘I am not yet born’
The poet also presents distress and worry of the new-born perhaps indicating that it’s not willing to live in a world, so cruel and full of evil, where naivety can be taken advantage of by inhuman people. He recognises that’s its unsafe and feels threatened about the way he will grow up to be, as he doesn’t want to turn out to be a ‘beast’. The repetition of ‘I am not yet born’ insinuates the fact that he’s in desperate need of God hearing his prayers and he wants to be prepared before being born. If he feels as though it’s not suitable for him, based on how he will live, then he wants god to make sure he isn’t going to be born. He wants the supreme being to double check that its right for him to be born and to reassure the fact that any negativity wouldn’t affect him. The adverb ‘yet’ hints that up until now he wants to make sure it’s the right and final decision before he experiences something he doesn’t want to.
‘old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains frown at me, lovers laugh at me’
The poet presents fear as inevitable and something a person ought to conquer, however the character of the poem seems to know the dangers they’re going to face and isn’t prepared to fight the battle through continuous listing of ‘old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains frown at me, lovers laugh at me’ demonstrates the amount of things it’s going to have to overcome and that’s its sort of becoming a challenge, given by god, to see if he remains patient and calm, or if he turns out to become a product of a frightful planet. The speaker would feel shocked to know the amount of things this unborn child knows and feel pitiful towards the child as we are fully aware of vile things that goes on, in the world. The tone of the poem is quite overwhelming and creates a sense of excessive perturbation where the child starts to develop a fixed mind-set
white light in the back of my mind to guide me
This may allude back to the religious story of Adam and Eve where it asks God to guide them as they commited a sin which the child expects to do as well. The verb shows how lost the child is going in the world as he aks God for help.
o hear me….provide me
At the start of every stanza it begins with a imperative where the foetus asks for help going intot he world and then he begins to explore the dangers in the world which he cant escape from.
i fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me
While the alliteration in the first stanza was cutesy and fun, here it’s much more sinister. It has a suffocating, violent effect, evoking the fears listed in the stanza. The alliertaion inconjunction with the assonance emphaise how people from his own species will betray it which may allude that they will trap them in the society which he cant get out. Imprisonment
free verse
Prayer before Birth is a poem in free verse because it lacks the conventional stanzaic division and regular rhyme scheme and makes use of repetition of sounds, words, syntactic structures and alliterations. The poet makes an occasional use of rhymes.
or
he poem is written in free verse, with no set rhyme scheme or rhythm. This echoes the sense of randomness in the world which the baby fears. The brutality of the universe into which the child is going to be born is also made explicit in the ragged edges of the stanzas.
8 stanzas
emphaize the temes of helplesnnes, fear and the desire for guidance that are central to the poem. Each stanza explore the different aspects of the speakers anxeities and wishes, building a comphensive picture of the unborn childs plea for protection and idenitiy
