Louis MacNeice (1907-63)

Prayer before birth

1. I am not yet born; O hear me.

2. Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
3. club-footed ghoul come near me.

4. I am not yet born, console me.

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

8. I am not yet born; provide me

9. With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
10. to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
11. in the back of my mind to guide me.

12. I am not yet born; forgive me

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

18. I am not yet born; rehearse me

19. In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
20. old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
21. frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
22. waves call me to folly and the desert calls
23. me to doom and the beggar refuses
24. my gift and my children curse me.

25. I am not yet born; O hear me,

26. Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
27. come near me.

28. I am not yet born; O fill me

29. With strength against those who would freeze my
30. humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
31. would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
32. one face, a thing, and against all those
33. who would dissipate my entirety, would
34. blow me like thistledown hither and
35. thither or hither and thither
36. like water held in the
37. hands would spill me.

38. Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
39. Otherwise kill me.

-- Louis MacNeice
PRAYER BEFORE BIRTH

THEME

Appealing for ___________ and freedom

TYPE

___________

STRUCTURE

Irregular verse

1. The poem consists of eight stanzas of ___________ length

2. There is no ___________ rhyme scheme, but the poet achieves the effect he aims at by the

varying length of the lines, by using caesure and ___________ lines and by constant repetition of

the ___________ pronouns “I”, “me” and “my”.

Caesura is a natural ___________ or break.

STANZA 1

Stating that he has not yet been born, the baby ___________ God to hear his prayer and not let

the ___________*, the rat, the stoat* or the clubfooted ghoul* come near him when he has been

born.

Vampire bat - A South ___________ bat which sucks the blood of other animals

Stoat - a small brown furry ___________ that eats other animals

Clubfooted - having a badly shaped foot ___________ out of position from birth

Ghoul - a spirit which in the stories in ___________ countries takes bodies from the grave to eat

them

NOTE 1: (A) “Let not the BLOODSUCKING BAT...”

This is a very clever touch on the part of the poet: the ___________ baby first asks to be

protected against those ___________, real or imaginary, that terrify young children.

(B) ___________: bloodsucking bat

ASSONANCE: bat or the rat

STANZA 2
The unborn child prays that God may give ___________ to him during his whole future life.

He expresses the fear that his ___________ may one day hem* in between the high walls of

society, thus ___________* his freedom.

Hem - enclose, ___________ tightly

Restricting - control, ___________, keep back, limit

Drug peddlars may try to addict him to ___________ drugs, criminals may try to lead him astray

by telling him clever lies and so getting him ___________ in their unlawful activities.

Then, too, he may be ___________* by his fellow man or fall victim to warmongers* who will force

him to take up arms against an ___________ he does not hate.

Persecuted - treat cruelly, cause to su ___________ offer

Warmongers - persons who try to get a war started for their ___________ profit

NOTE 2 (a) “...CONSOLE me.

I FEAR that the HUMAN RACE...”

The infant is afraid of being dominated by his fellow-man and thus ______his individuality. This

______is repeated in Stanza 7

(b) ALLITERATION - with tall walls wall me

drugs dope

with wise

racks rack

INTERNAL RHYME - with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me

STANZA 3

The child is not yet born, yet he begs God to ______him to enjoy the beauty of nature in his

childhood.
He asks for water in which he can bob up and down ______swimming, for grass to grow for him, for

trees to talk to him, for ______, and for the inner light of his conscience (gewete) to guide him

through______.

NOTE 3: (A) “...and a WHITE LIGHT

In the BACK OF MY MIND to GUIDE me.

This vivid METHAPHOR describes the ______CONSCIENCE that will guide him

through life. His CONSCIENCE must be LIKE an INNER LIGHT that ______him the way.

STANZA 4

Although he has not yet been ______, the infant begs God to forgive him the ______that the

world will commit in him.

This include the ______words that sinful people will speak through him, the wicked thoughts that

they will produce in his mind and the treason that he will ______because of the machinations of

traitors occupying ______positions.

Treason - the crime of helping the enemies of one’s______.

Machinations - a plan for ______harm

Traitor - a person who ______treason.

The Lord is also to forgive him for ______being born when they murder their enemies in time of

war be means of his hands that they have ______to kill and for his death when the evil done by him

______them lives after him.

NOTE 4 “...forgive me for the sins that IN ME

The WORLD SHALL COMMIT....

MY WORDS when THEY SPEAK ME...”

The WORLD and THEY to which the child ______is the unknown, impersonal evil force, i.e. man’s

inborn sinful ______that continuously tries to ______down by putting wicked words in his mouth,

etc.

The words ‘WORLD’ and ‘THEY’ are METAPHORS for ______impersonal forces of evil.

STANZA 5

The unborn ______realizes his dependance on God and ______Him to rehearse him in the various

______he will have to play during his adulthood and the ______he will have to follow in different

situations.

He will need to know what to do or say when old ______scold him, when bureaucrats* ______him.

Bureaucrat - a government official ______is self-important and tries to ______power in himself.

He will need to know what to do ______mountains seem to ______at him in warning to keep away

from them, when young people in love ______at him, when the white surf seem to call him to swim

in the sea and be ______, when the barren (empty and dry) desert ______him to enter it and die

of thirst, when a needy beggar refuses to ______a present of money from him and when even his

own children curse him.

NOTE 5: (A) “...REHEARSE me in the PARTS I must PLAY

And the CUES I must take WHEN...

The poet ______the imagery of THEATRE: he begs the Lord to prepare him for and ______him

from all the unpleasantness, temptations, and dangers of his ______life.

The roles he must ______in life is like the parts you play in a ______in a theatre. The guidelines

he must receive from God is like the cues you get in a theatre when you ______your words.
(b) Note how the word ‘WHEN’ in line 14 ______all the images and how the stanza moves to a

climactic ______by the REPETITION of the word ‘AND’ in Lines 5-7.

STANZA 6

The unborn infant asks God not to let ______* men and those who think they ______God come

near him.

Bestial - like an animal, very ______and brutal.

NOTE 6: “Let not the MAN who is BEAST or who THINKS he is GOD...”

The question arises whether the poet is referring to the Antichrist the ______personal opponent

of ______, expected to appear before the end of the word.

STANZA 7

The unborn child ______for the mental and ______strength to withstand those who would try to

freeze his humanity*, who would condition* him into becoming a dangerous robotlike ______, who

would turn him into a tiny ______in the bureaucratic machine, into a mindless thing with only a

single expression on his ______, that of servility*.

Humanity - human nature, kindness of ______

Condition - train systematically until he ______things automatically

Dragoon - use force in order to make a ______do something.

Servility - behaving like a slave, i.e allowing complete ______by others.

He begs God to protect him against all ______in authority who would dissipate* his whole being.

Dissipate - use up foolishly,______

Who would blow him here and there and all ______like thistledown in the wind and would spill his

life like water running ______the fingers of cupped hands.

NOTE 7: (a) ...FILL ME WITH STRENGTH against those

Who would FREEZE MY HUMANITY...

The poet returns to the line of ______expressed briefly in Stanza 2 and 3.

He wishes to be protected against the domineerting bureaucracy who ______the people of a nation

into mindless ______that do not have either the will or the ability to think for themselves.

(b) “...DRAGOON me into a LETHAL AUTOMATON...

...MAKE me in a COG in a MACHINE...

... A THING with ONE FACE, a THING...”

Note the series of effective METAPHORS by ______of which the poet ______his protest against

the stifling influence exercised in ______society by the autocratic bureaucracy.

(c) “...BLOW me LIKE THISTLEDOWN...

LIKE WATER held in the hands would SPILL me...”

These graphic SIMILES illustrate the poet’s bitterness at modern ______not being allowed to live

his own ______, but constantly being under the influence and at the ______of the destructive

forces in modern society.

STANZA 8

His ______prayer is that the Lord should not allow them to petrify* hin and not to let them

______his life.

Petrify - turn something into ______, usually by the long-continued action of water

containing______.

If God cannot protect him against ______faceless enemies, he ______to be still-born.

QUESTIONS
1. What type of poem is this?
2. What is the refrain of the poem?
3. What is the central theme of the poem?
4. What is the baby’s first prayer?
5. What does the infant beg God to do? Why
6. What fears does he express in stanza 2?
7. Explain briefly how the child hopes to enjoy the beauty and joys of nature.
8. What should guide him through life?
9. What does the baby beg God to forgive him?
10. To what do the METAPHORS in stanza 4 refer?
11. What does the unborn infant realize in stanza 5?
12. What does he beg God to do?
13. What does he fear with regard to each of the following: (a) old men (b) bureaucrats (c)
mountains (d) lovers (e) the sea (f) the desert.
14. What does he fear that each of the following will do to him: (a) beggars (b) his children
15. Which ‘man’ does the baby fear in Stanza 6?
16. Who might this ‘man’ be?
17. For what does the child beg God in Stanza 7?
18. Explain in each of the following images in your own words: (a) freeze my humanity (b)
‘automaton’ (c) a cog (d) dissipate my entirety (e) water (f) a thing with one face (g) a
thistledown
19. What is the baby’s final prayer in stanza 8?
20. What should God do if these pleas of his cannot be fulfilled?

ANSWERS
1. Lyric
2. I am not yet born
3. Appealing for individuality and freedom
4. He wants God to keep the vampire, stoat and the clubfooted ghoul from him.
5. He wants God to console him through his future life. He is afraid his fellowman would limit him
and influence him until he is persecuted by man.
6. He fears his fellow-humans may restrict his freedom, that drug peddlars will addict him to
drugs, criminals may lead him astray.
7. He wants water that he can float around him, he wants grass to grow for him, he wants trees to
talk to him and he wants birds.
8. His conscience.
9. He wants God to forgive him for the sins that the world will commit in him.
10. World and they are metaphors for impersonal forces of evil.
11. He realizes he is dependant on God.
12. He asks God to rehearse with him the roles he will have to play in adulthood, he wants guidelines
that he must follow in different situations, he wants to know what to do when old men scold him
and when bureaucrats bully him.
13. (a) old men will scold him. (b) bureaucrats will bully him (c) mountains will frown at him (d) lovers
will laugh at him (e) the sea will invite him to swim in the white waves so he can drown (f)the
desert will invite him to enter so that he would die of thirst.
14. (a) needy beggars will not want to take his money. (b) his own children will curse him.
15. The man who thinks he is God and the bestial men.
16. The antichrist
17. For mental and moral strength
18. (a) freeze his humanity is to take his will to be kind away. (b)automaton - he will be changed into
a robot (c) a cog - he will just become another part of a machine, he will lose his individuality (d)
dissipate his entirety means there will be people who would want to use up who he is. They will
use him and change him into nothing. (e) water - his life will become like water. Something you
cannot hold onto with your hands. (f) a thing with one face - a mindless thing with one
expression on his face (g) a thistledown - something that will be blown around by the wind. He
will go where the wind directs him to go. The wind being a metaphor for authority.
19. God must not allow people to turn him into stone.
20. He wants to be still-born. Dead.