Prayer Before Birth

• (title) Prayer before birth


  excitement before a child being born
• line 1: I am not yet born; O hear me.

  first person - introduces the viewpoint/speaker

  O - used for communication and adds a sense of desperation as well as a pleading tone, as one would do when they are praying, a tone of incantation. he pleas that only god can save the child from humanity.

  hear me - strong imperative, it wants to be listened to and begins to
• refrain of 'I am not yet born', with an imperative

  the refrain, repeated in every stanza emphasises the speaker's innocence and helplessness before it is corrupted by humanity. It is already aware of the broken state of the world it is about to be brought into.

  
  

  the imperative has a confession tone, as the child is thought to be speaking to god, he wants god to protect it against reality and its fears. there is a tone of incantation and desperation.
• lines 2-3: the blooducking bat or the rat or the stoat or the club footed ghoul come near me.

  the enjambment and syndetic listing - aids the flow, of desperation as the child expresses examples of their child-like fears

  the images of nocturnal predators - hunting creatures could be used for how humanity behaves during war, the destructive/predatory nature.

  club footed ghoul - linked to evil/fear and the deformities of infants.
• line 5-6: tall walls wall me, with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,

  the speaker seeks protection from war/addiction

  
  

  assonance/alliteration - creates a child like, nursery rhyme tone but also anger at the human race, it sounds like the words are being spitted out.

  
  

  the asyndetic listing, the fears and potential of human harm is endless, the torture goes from mental to physical

  
  

  walls wall me - fear of claustrophobia, wall is used as a verb, but also a metaphor from the wall of war and the separation of countries, knowledge and cultures

  
  

  drugs dope - makes a person less likely to challenge and more stupid.

  
  

  wise lies lure me - the fear of manipulation and the oxymoron of wise lies, coupled with the internal rhyme creates a fragile/naive tone. lure could imply the innocent populaiton being lured into corruption.
• line 7: on black racks rack me, in blood bath roll me

  black racks - medieval torture method, the poet suggests that humans are tortured regardless of the time, it has always been prevalent in society.

  
  

  blood- baths - more evil references to physical torture and the most intense torture method as it refers to death.

  
  

  roll - a very careless and colloquial verb indicating human life is not fragile.
• what is the shift in tone from stanza 2 to stanza 3 ?

  there is a shift in tone from the harrowing torture of humanity and death (blood) to the healing features of the natural world. the natural world provides solace and comfort, hopeless to hopeful
• stanza 3: talk to me, sing to me, to guide me

  personification of nature - the child would rather interact with the natural world then the human world. there is a maternal quality, alluding to 'mother nature' which is seen as extremely nurturing. if human beings do not cherish it then it will turn to nature.
• line 10: white light

  a reference to god and for conscience, wisdom and mainly protection.
• line 12: forgive me ... for the sins that in me, the world shall commit

  A major plea

  the imperative and biblical imagery - predicts he will commit heinous due to the corrupted nature of the world, the poet expresses the dismal view of humanity. they acknowledge it.

  
  

  almost like a dictator prediciting how they will become corrupt. all dictators are born innocent, it is the world and the humans that corrupt others

  
  

  hyperbole - he feels he will corrupt others but lacks control over making choices, he feels it will be inevitable
• line 13-14: my words when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me

  they - 2nd p, controlling pronoun, others/the world have responsibility
• line 15-17: my treason endangered by traitors beyond me, my life when they murder by means of my hands, my death when they live me.

  there is pre-existing corruption due to war and the societal pressures of signing up to war.
• line 18: rehearse me

  line 19: in the parts I must play and the cues I must take

  the verb suggests he will be made into a person and shaped by others and there is a lack of freedom. he must be dishonest.

  
  

  there is theatre/acting imagery
• line 20-24: old men lecture me, ... hector me, mountains frown. lovers laugh, ... children curse me

  he is isolated as all that is around him bullies and pressures him, irony of corrupting his own children.

  
  

  the natural world has even turned against him.
• what is stanza 5 about?

  the poet lists the obstacles and barriers to wisdom and freedom.
• line 26-27: the man who is beast or who thinks he is God come near me.

  Labels two extremes of behaviour in socirty.

  
  

  the difference between 'is' and thinks he 'is' links to the animalistic nature of =humanity and how humans can turn into animals when faced by the pressures of war but no one can compare to the power of god. more religious references.

  
  

  Also suggests the child does not want to be influenced by this.
• line 28: O fill me

  line 29-30: would freeze my humanity.
• line 30: human automation

  31: a cog in a machine

  31-32: a thing

  mechanical imagery and metaphor of a child being a cog, emotionless and describes the harshness of a world which could remove his humanity and he would no longer be seen as an organic human being.
• line 33-35: like thistledown hither and thither or hither and thither

  the 'th' sound ans simile of thistledown, fragile/innocence of the child
• line 36-37: like water held in the hands would spill me

  spill - carelessness, fragility and deliberately dispose of, the child yearns to be loved and cared for
• lines 38-39: not make me a stone and let them not spill me. Otherwise kill me.

  the final two metaphors that the child does not want to become are emotionless and be disposed/used of. they would rather die.
• what does the internal rhyme and indentation/format suggest?

  in the first line (not indented) the child pleads for god's protection and the evolvement for a better world. in the last line (often the most indneted), it indicates the harsh reality and how this is far from the imperatives of the child. the ordering tone juxtaposes the innocence of a child.
• what would you compare it too?

  the cruelty/selfishness of humans - the tyger or my last duchess

  innocence of childhood - piano

  identity being shaped by parents - 'If' and 'Poem at Thirty Nine
• what are the themes?


  horrors of war

  harshness of reality

  lack of control and manipulation

  the natural world and the human world

  fears

  (the poets own fears for future generations and his own children)
• what is the basic structure?

  an 8 stanza, dramatic monologue, from the perspective of an unborn child.
• free verse

  irregular stanza length, the child gives all the irregularities and issues they see with the world, why they are fearful and what they want to change.
• how does the tone contrast the impending birth?

  the excitement contrasts the childs feelings of fear, critical, cynical, anguish and anger.