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
I. .
PRAYER BEFORE BIRTH
THEME
Appealing for individuality and freedom
TYPE
Lyric
STRUCTURE
Irregular verse
1. The poem consists of eight stanzas of unequal length
2. There is no definite rhyme scheme, but the poet achieves the effect he aims at by the varying length of the lines, by using caesure and run-on lines and by constant repetition of the personal pronouns “I”, “me” and “my”.
Caesura is a natural pause or break.
STANZA 1
Stating that he has not yet been born, the baby begs God to hear his prayer and not let the vampire bat*, the rat, the stoat* or the clubfooted ghoul* come near him when he has been born.
Vampire bat - A South American bat which sucks the blood of other animals
Stoat - a small brown furry animal that eats other animals
Clubfooted - having a badly shaped foot twisted out of position from birth
Ghoul - a spirit which in the stories in Eastern 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 unborn baby first asks to be protected against those creatures, real or imaginary, that terrify young children.
(B) ALLITERATION: bloodsucking bat
ASSONANCE: bat or the rat
STANZA 2
The unborn child prays that God may give comfort to him during his whole future life.
He expresses the fear that his fellow-humans may one day hem* in between the high walls of society, thus restricting* his freedom.
Hem - enclose, surround tightly
Restricting - control, prevent, keep back, limit
Drug peddlars may try to addict him to powerful drugs, criminals may try to lead him astray by telling him clever lies and so getting him involved in their unlawful activities.
Then, too, he may be persecuted* by his fellow man or fall victim to warmongers* who will force him to take up arms against an enemy he does not hate.
Persecuted - treat cruelly, cause to suffer
Warmongers - persons who try to get a war started for their personal 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 losing his individuality. This thought 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 enable him to enjoy the beauty of nature in his childhood.
He asks for water in which he can bob up and down while swimming, for grass to grow for him, for trees to talk to him, for birds, and for the inner light of his conscience (gewete) to guide him through life.
NOTE 3: (A) “...and a WHITE LIGHT
In the BACK OF MY MIND to GUIDE me.
This vivid METHAPHOR describes the baby’s CONSCIENCE that will guide him through life. His CONSCIENCE must be LIKE an INNER LIGHT that shows him the way.
STANZA 4
Although he has not yet been born, the infant begs God to forgive him the sins that the world will commit in him.
This include the evil words that sinful people will speak through him, the wicked thoughts that they will produce in his mind and the treason that he will commit because of the machinations of traitors occupying high positions.
Treason - the crime of helping the enemies of one’s country.
Machinations - a plan for doing harm
Traitor - a person who commits treason.
The Lord is also to forgive him for ever being born when they murder their enemies in time of war be means of his hands that they have trained to kill and for his death when the evil done by him through 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 refers is the unknown, impersonal evil force, i.e. man’s inborn sinful nature that continuously tries to drag down by putting wicked words in his mouth, etc.
The words ‘WORLD’ and ‘THEY’ are METAPHORS for these impersonal forces of evil.
STANZA 5
The unborn baby realizes his dependance on God and begs Him to rehearse him in the various roles he will have to play during his adulthood and the cues he will have to follow in different situations.
He will need to know what to do or say when old men scold him, when bureaucrats* bully him.
Bureaucrat - a government official who is self-important and tries to centre power in himself.
He will need to know what to do when mountains seem to frown at him in warning to keep away from them, when young people in love laugh at him, when the white surf seem to call him to swim in the sea and be drowned, when the barren (empty and dry) desert invite him to enter it and die of thirst, when a needy beggar refuses to accept 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 uses the imagery of THEATRE: he begs the Lord to prepare him for and guide him from all the unpleasantness, temptations, and dangers of his adult life.
The roles he must play in life is like the parts you play in a play in a theatre. The guidelines he must receive from God is like the cues you get in a theatre when you forgot your words.
(b) Note how the word ‘WHEN’ in line 14 links all the images and how the stanza moves to a climactic ending by the REPETITION of the word ‘AND’ in Lines 5-7.
STANZA 6
The unborn infant asks God not to let bestial* men and those who think they are God come near him.
Bestial - like an animal, very cruel 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 great personal opponent of Christ, expected to appear before the end of the word.
STANZA 7
The unborn child pleads for the mental and moral strength to withstand those who would try to freeze his humanity*, who would condition* him into becoming a dangerous robotlike creature, who would turn him into a tiny cog in the bureaucratic machine, into a mindless thing with only a single expression on his face, that of servility*.
Humanity - human nature, kindness of heart
Condition - train systematically until he does things automatically
Dragoon - use force in order to make a person do something.
Servility - behaving like a slave, i.e allowing complete control by others.
He begs God to protect him against all those in authority who would dissipate* his whole being.
Dissipate - use up foolishly,waste
Who would blow him here and there and all over like thistledown in the wind and would spill his life like water running through 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 thought expressed briefly in Stanza 2 and 3.
He wishes to be protected against the domineerting bureaucracy who turn the people of a nation into mindless robots 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 means of which the poet voices his protest against the stifling influence exercised in modern 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 man not being allowed to live his own life, but constantly being under the influence and at the mercy of the destructive forces in modern society.
STANZA 8
His final prayer is that the Lord should not allow them to petrify* him and not to let them waste his life.
Petrify - turn something into stone, usually by the long-continued action of water containing lime.
If God cannot protect him against these faceless enemies, he wishes 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.