Prayer Before Birth
Prayer Before Birth
By: Louis MacNeice
Context
Written during the Second World War, more specifically in 1944. During 1944 London was being bombed to a large extent and as such it was a time of fear for the future.
Content
An unborn child expresses its fear of what the world can do to the innocent. It does this through the form of a prayer (possibly to God) in which it pleas to be preserved from the dangers that future on earth might hold, including its own corruption (4th stanza).
Tone
The tone of this poem can be interpreted in a number of different ways. The child seems fearful of the future and as such urgent and impassioned in its dialect. The poem also seems to have an apocalyptic or nightmarish feel to it. The continuous negativity could also illustrate the hopelessness of the situation.
Themes
· The world is cruel and dangerous
· The world is manipulative
· A plea for human freedom
· Nothing is safe from corruption
Form and structure
The poem is written as a dramatic monologue which is spoken by an unborn child. This in itself is a very unsettling concept. The dramatic nature of the monologue is increased by a series of increasing stanzas (apart from the 6th and final stanza) which build up the potential horror on earth to a crescendo. This poem is also laid out in a very unconventional fashion. The cascading lines of the poem could represent the danger and chaos of life on earth, or maybe they are just used by the poet to speed up the delivery of the stanzas. The shorter stanzas near the end of the poem without cascading lines are successfully used to break this sequence. By surrounding the penultimate stanza with two of these shorter stanzas, the poet brings our attention to this stanza and highlights its content.
Language
· The repetition of ‘I am not yet born’ at the start of each stanza makes the poem like an incantation, which relates back to the idea of a prayer. The phrase also makes it clear that
By: Louis MacNeice
Context
Written during the Second World War, more specifically in 1944. During 1944 London was being bombed to a large extent and as such it was a time of fear for the future.
Content
An unborn child expresses its fear of what the world can do to the innocent. It does this through the form of a prayer (possibly to God) in which it pleas to be preserved from the dangers that future on earth might hold, including its own corruption (4th stanza).
Tone
The tone of this poem can be interpreted in a number of different ways. The child seems fearful of the future and as such urgent and impassioned in its dialect. The poem also seems to have an apocalyptic or nightmarish feel to it. The continuous negativity could also illustrate the hopelessness of the situation.
Themes
· The world is cruel and dangerous
· The world is manipulative
· A plea for human freedom
· Nothing is safe from corruption
Form and structure
The poem is written as a dramatic monologue which is spoken by an unborn child. This in itself is a very unsettling concept. The dramatic nature of the monologue is increased by a series of increasing stanzas (apart from the 6th and final stanza) which build up the potential horror on earth to a crescendo. This poem is also laid out in a very unconventional fashion. The cascading lines of the poem could represent the danger and chaos of life on earth, or maybe they are just used by the poet to speed up the delivery of the stanzas. The shorter stanzas near the end of the poem without cascading lines are successfully used to break this sequence. By surrounding the penultimate stanza with two of these shorter stanzas, the poet brings our attention to this stanza and highlights its content.
Language
· The repetition of ‘I am not yet born’ at the start of each stanza makes the poem like an incantation, which relates back to the idea of a prayer. The phrase also makes it clear that