NotesVilla Academic Team Notes

Poetry Notes for Edexcel English Literature –2023 Syllabus

PRAYER BEFORE BIRTH – LOUIS MACNEICE

I am not yet born, O hear me.

Let not the bloodsucking bat, or the rat, or the stoat, or the clubfooted ghoul
come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.

I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me, with strong
drugs dope
me, with wise lies lure me, on black racks rack me, in blood baths roll
me.

I am not yet born, provide me.

With water to dandle me, grass to grow from me, tress to talk to me,
sky to
sing to me, birds and a white light in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born, forgive me (please).

For the sins that I me the world shall commit, my words when they speak to me,
my thoughts when they think me, my treason engendered by traitors beyond
me, my life when they murder by means of my hands, my death when they
live.

I am not yet born, rehearse me.

In the parts that 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.

I am not yet born, O hear me.

Let not the man who is beast, or who thinks he is God come near.

I am not yet born, O fill me.

With strength against those who would freeze my humanity, would dragoon
me into lethal automation, 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 tither and tither and tither like water
held in the hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone, and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.
Summary

The narrator of an unborn baby asks to be heard and asks that bats, rats, stoats and even
ghosts be kept away. The poem is a series of requests, seemingly to humanity in general. The
unborn child is afraid that it will be treated badly and be imprisoned and drugged.

In anticipation of sins that the unborn child will commit, because of the jaded world, it asks for
forgiveness for its future crimes and wrongs. The unborn child jumps to its death and asks to be
forgiven for how their life turned out, which shows an anticipation of a poor life.

The narrator asks to be taught when faced with the difficulties of life. The list is bleak and the
expectation that the roles to be played in life will be troubled ones. There is a sense of
helplessness as the narrator even needs advice on how to behave when beggars reject its
charity and is even hated by the narrator’s children.

The narrator asks to be listened to and for violent or self-aggrandizing men to not be allowed.

The narrator lists things that the unborn child hopes to resist. It doesn’t want to be forced into
being a killing machine or be reduced to an object without individuality. The narrator doesn’t
want to be spilled like water can spill out of someone’s hands or be turned into a cold, hard-
hearted stone. If that were to happen, the narrator would rather not be born at all.

Overall, the poem uses the list like style of a prayer and a list of individual requests to
demonstrate the state of the world that it is entering. The poem seems to be a political
statement that comments, in a seemingly contradictory stoic manner, on how humanity has
destroyed all that is positive in the world. The metaphors at the end powerfully demonstrate
the strength of feeling that the world can harm the unborn baby as it requests to be killed,
rather than be abused by the living. “Otherwise kill me” is an active command that reinforces
the bleak message of the poem and the harshness of the options available to the unknown
child, who the reader knows will not be able to escape all the misfortunes listed in the poem.

Themes

Corruption – humanity is lost, and the innocence of the unborn will not preserved. Rather the
unborn child will become part of humanity and consequently part of the problem. They will
themselves commit sins.

Nature and Industry – Nature is presented as fragile that can be blown around like thistledown.
Nature is to be desired and is presented as nourishing and life enhancing. However, the fear
that the unborn will become an industrialized cog in a machine, is presented as the most likely
option. The context of the poem being written in WW2 is important as it was a time of
mechanization and industrialization.
Free Choice – The unborn child’s prayer to not be subjected to torture, violence, and self-
destruction demonstrates a sense of what will happen to it is pre-determined. The world is
presented as bigger than the child. The world can shape and form the child’s future. The
unborn child, is though the one speaking and its very request to not be subsumed by the world’
wrongs, suggests a desire at least to maintain some free choice. The speaker is presented as
someone who will passively watch the negative path their life will take, suggesting that it is pre-
determined.

Nature - Nature is seen as the positive force in the poem. It is generous and loving, whereas
humanity is greedy and cruel.

Machinery – Modern machinery is contrasted with nature and seen as eroding free will,
individuality and humanity. There is a hint to the corruption that machinery brings, linking to
war. The poem contrasts the safety of the womb with the threat of the external world. This is
amplified as the poem is written during war time and the modern outside world is frightening
and threatening. MacNeice doesn’t mention war explicitly, but the capacity for violence is
mentioned. There is a sense of fear of what humans are capable of.

Other Points of Interest

It is a prayer so presumably the unborn child is speaking to God. This is a plea to and a belief
that there is a greater power at play than humanity, who have destroyed themselves and their
planet.

Although the whole poem is from the unborn child’s perspective, the narrative does follow a
linear route. We are being with the childlike fear of ghosts and ghouls and progress into
adulthood, where the speaker may be forced to have a mundane industrial job or be a fighter.

The white light in the back of the mind suggests a morality and clarity that is linked in the same
stanza to nature. The trees and the sky are personified, which creates a sense that they have
the human positive characteristics that humanity lacks.

Immorality is presented as something that will be done to the speaker, suggesting that they
can’t avoid it. However, the poem also acknowledges that they will need to ask forgiveness.
This suggests an accountability (perhaps in the eyes of God) for their involvement in something
that they haven’t chosen.

As the poem progresses it seems to increase in intensity. The final two lines are a request to be
heard and perhaps a fear that it isn’t happening.

The child talks about ‘me’ a lot. This reminds the reader that it is still unborn and consequently
innocent and helpless. Children are also self-absorbed, but the world is bigger than the
individual and will corrupt it. When looking at nature “Grass to grow… sky to sing..” the tone is
almost playful, but when the speaker needs to ask for forgiveness, the scene becomes bleak
and helpless. As the poem is narrated by an unborn child it is symbolic rather than literal.

Sample of Devices – but there’s more to search out!

Alliteration – there is lots of it. The effectiveness and purpose changes. At the beginning it is
almost like a fairy tale, but then in the second stanza it becomes very sinister. When linked to
nature it seems airy and gentle and fragile. There’s also a lot of assonance, where the mood and
tone does change in line in the same style as alliteration.

Asyndeton - is used to demonstrate the anxiety of the speaker. They have a long list of woes
that they need to be heard about. This is also created with the use of parallelism. A similar
grammatical structure with ‘my’. ‘me’ and ‘they’. The rhythm suggests a back-and-forth battle
between the speaker and the corrupting influence of society.

Caesura is used frequently. There is a pause after “I am not yet born” with a follow-on request
to be listened to. There is a sense of entreaty and begging almost for things to be better.
However, this is slightly different in the hopeful stanza three. Here, the enjambement creates a
sing song nursery rhyme effect.

Consonance - is everywhere in the poem. It adds to the sense of anxiety. Consonance is often
part of the alliteration in the poem, e.g., in the opening lines.

The poem uses the form of apostrphe throughout, but the speaker feels unheard and
consequently frightened. There is a sense that no one is really listening to the prayer being
shared.

Parallelism is used in the stanzas. I am not yet born, followed by an imperative verse. The ‘me’
also is parallelism at the end of lines. Its repetition reminds the reader of the impact society and
the world will have on the unborn child.

“I am not yet born” is also a refrain. The unborn child’s identity is repeated over and over – it’s
fragility and vulnerability are demonstrated. In the final stanza the refrain disappears which
takes away a false sense of security that has somehow been created through the repetition of
the refrain.

Rhyme Scheme – the poem has an irregular rhyme scheme (the meter also changes) but the
consistency of the first and last stanza lines rhyming gives a sense of musicality to the poem,
which sits with the prayer form. It gives the poem a sense of power.

MacNeice is a contemporary of Auden and Stephen Spender. He is lumped in what is called the
Auden Group or Generation.
Reference: Howard, James. "Prayer Before Birth." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 12
Aug 2020. Web. 21 Dec 2022.

Want more?

Visit https://www.notesvilla.com/notes to gain access to hundreds of study

notes created by students, teachers, and professional learners.

Got notes of your own?

Create an account on https://www.notesvilla.com/ and begin uploading your

study notes for cash payments and credit rewards.