Edexcel IGCSE Poetry Anthology Texts - Prayer Before Birth - Louis MacNeice

Context of poem

- Written during WW2 to express deep concern for children being born in such an awful time.

Structure of poem

- Dramatic Monologue from an unborn child

- 1st Person Perspective

- 8 stanzas

- Free Verse - rhythm, imperatives, internal rhyme in each stanza in its first and last line (e.g. 'hear' [line 1] + 'near' [line 3] ; 'console' [line 4] + 'roll' [line 7])

- Stanzas 1, 2 + 8 each have 2 sentences, while all other stanzas are made up of one long sentence.

- Stanzas 6 + 8 break up the fast, flowing pace to emphasise their contents.

Themes of poem

- Fear, criticality, anguish, cynical

- Horrors of war, humanity, fascism, fear, manipulation

Prayer Before Birth [Title]

- Religious connotations, fear, desperation

“I am not yet born; O hear me.” [stanza 1]

- Anaphora of 'I am not yet born' - at the start of every stanza except stanza 8.

- 'O' - interjection, shows abrupt emotion

- 'Hear me' - Imperative

“Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the

club-footed ghoul come near me.” [stanza 1]

- Nightmarish, vampirish creatures listed - these textbook, almost story-like fears will contrast with greater fears of the world that will be covered in the following stanzas.

- 'Club-footed ghoul' - ableism present during MacNeice's time - any disability was seen as 'evil'

“I am not yet born, console me.

I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,” [stanza 2]

- Use of the verb 'console' - despite not even being born, the speaker is already heartbroken and in need of comfort - suggests a brutality to the world.

- Sense of imprisonment + assonance

“ with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,

on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.” [stanza 2]

- Continuation of assonance and alliteration in this stanza - restricting structure represents idea of torture, manipulation, entrapment, yet this is juxtaposed with the nursery rhyme-like style.

- Fear of being taken advantage of.

- 'Wise lies lure me' - Paradoxical? - How can a lie be wise? - Despite this, he has been deceived by it.

- 'Black racks rack me' - medieval torture method - evil

- 'Blood-baths' links to the bloodsucking bat - gory, horrific image

“I am not yet born; provide me

With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk

to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light

in the back of my mind to guide me.” [stanza 3]

- Contrast to the other stanzas - Beautiful nature - contrast, jarring, shows the positive aspects of the world amidst the horror. This paragraph of hope is crushed and enclosed by pessimism, fear, manipulation.

- 'Water' - connotations of purity

- Dandle - cradle gently, comforting

- 'White light' - Metaphor for God ('s wisdom and guidance) - religious

"I am not yet born; forgive me

For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words

when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me," [stanza 4]

- Already a given that they will sin before birth - connotes a sense of hopelessness + pessimism

- Manipulation - Cannot take full accountability for the actions since they are due to the influence of others.

- Loss of control

" my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,

my life when they murder by means of my

hands, my death when they live me." [stanza 4]

- FYI - engendered = caused - nothing to do with gender

- 'my death when they live me' - another paradoxical phrase - highlights the restricted quality of life; death sets the speaker free.

- Again, pessimistic - the baby has not even been born and yet death seems a lot more pleasant

"I am not yet born; rehearse me

In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when

old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains

frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white

waves call me to folly and the desert calls

me to doom and the beggar refuses

my gift and my children curse me." [stanza 5]

- Loss of free will - restrictive society - all people are actors, playing an assigned part

- Use of modal verb 'must' repeated - lack of choice

- The world is against this unborn child already

- Interesting how nature is referenced again, but not in a positive light like in stanza 3 - nature seems to be disappointed

- 'lovers' + 'children' - Even the ones the child will love will be against them

- 'doom' again, religious language - end of the world

- The next generations will be affected by this inevitable cycle forevermore, according to this child

"I am not yet born; O hear me,

Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God

come near me." [stanza 6]

- Repitition of imperative 'hear me' - confirming acknoledgement from God for the prayer - desperate for someone to support unborn child when everything is against them

- 'who is beast' - links back to bloodsucking bat/rat/stoat - evil

- 'who thinks he is God' - reference to fascist leaders in control at the time - abusing authority - WW2 + Hitler

"I am not yet born; O fill me

With strength against those who would freeze my

humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton," [stanza 7]

- 'Fill me' - Fear of feeling empty and numb on the inside

- 'Freeze my humanity' - Society wants to make the unborn child cold, hard, and have a lack of individuality

- 'lethal automaton' - Ruthless killing machine with no feelings - metaphor for dehumanisation, particularly relevant in a time like WW2

" would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with

one face, a thing, and against all those

who would dissipate my entirety, would

blow me like thistledown hither and

thither or hither and thither

like water held in the

hands would spill me." [stanza 7]

- Lack of individuality

- Repititon of 'thing' - ambiguous, naive + innocent, presents a childish voice amidst the destruction and horror

- Assonance - playful, childish, easily manipulated - though there is a lack of control, in a way it's still natural

- 'Water' purity - reference to line 9 - yet this purity has now been lost and 'spilt'

"Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.

Otherwise kill me." [stanza 8]

- Does not wish to become cold and emotionless, despite fascism shaping its people to act like so

- Repitition of spill - does not want a meaningless existance and a lack of human wholeness.

- Abrupt, short sentence, dark - the child would rather not enter this world.