Prayer Before Birth Flashcards

Free Verse

world is chaotic/messy/falling apart

poem lengthens

tirade or spiral

speaker is child

Clean point of view/ free from evil/ juxtaposes horror of war with childlike innocence to show how bad world is

alliteration and assonance of 'tall walls wall me' 'drugs dope me' 'lies lure me' 'racks rack me' 'blood baths'

torture/ manipulation/ entrapment juxtaposed with nursery rhyme style + creates haunting sound - fear

natural imagery of 'water...grass...trees...sky...birds.'

how childhood should be juxtaposed with how it is + shows child's innocence

passive voice of 'my words when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me...'

afraid he'll become vessel for world's evil - innocent will be corrupted/ lack of control over world

semantic field of hatred 'lecture me...hector me...frown at me...'

world against them - complete isolation

metahpor of 'dragoon me into a lethal automaton...cog in a machine'

fear he will be turned into a weapon/ faceless vessel that government can use/ lose individuality

repetition of 'thing'

fear he'll lose humanity/ be considered not a person/he'll be used for someone else's gain

volta from 'spill me. Let them not make me a stone'

fear + overwhelming emotions to adamant resolve

stark brevity of 'otherwise kill me'

abruptness shocks us + emphasises how bad world is

metaphor of 'stone'

unfeeling/ used to harm others/ be crushed underfoot

simile of 'like water held in the hands would spill me'

lack of human wholenes/ dissolve into nothing + meaningless existance/easily manipulated/ lacks substance/ directionless

polosives of 'thistledown hither and thither or hither'

spiralling/ hard to get at - lack of permanent identity

repetition of 'o'

becomes desperate plea + shows desperation

metaphor of 'a white light in the back of my mind to guide me'

wants conscience or God to guide him

polosives of 'bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the club-footed ghoul'

childish fears evolve into adult worries/ this is the worst children should have to face

metaphor of 'I must play...I must take'

loss of free will

imperatives of 'hear me...forgive me...'

needs God to protect him or life is not worth living/ forgive me - shows certainty that he'll sin - vulnerability + inescapable