Prayer before birth Flashcards
Meaning
A call to action. being born amidst such corruption is setting children up to fail, they don’t even have a chance unless as a society we fix it. reflective poem
Language features
- repetition
- Anaphora: repeating phrase at the start of clause
- Metaphors
- Vivid imagery
Repetition
- ‘I am not yet born’ start of every stanza reminds reader of what new babies are born into. Shocks the reader as well that a child not born yet knows of such horrors
Vivid imagery
’ water held in the hands would spill me’ - not being valued/ protected
‘ black racks rack me’ - graphic imagery. torture
Anaphora
‘i am not born yet ; O hear me.’
the child is begging for help. Gains sympathy from the reader
Metaphors
‘tall walls wall me’ - trap them with drugs
‘would make me a cog in a machine’ - remove their identity and sense of self
Form
dramatic monologue and formed abstract to represent chaos of the world
Structure
- fearful voice
- no rhyme scheme but has some rhymes such as ‘hither’ and ‘thither’ showing lack of order
- chaotic to represent the chaos of the world
personification
‘mountains frown at me’ shows nature being changed from a source of hope to the child to one of horror and judgement
‘for the sins in me the world shall commit’
religious imagery begging God to forgive the sins committed against the child
hopeful tone
‘with water to dandle me,grass to grow for me , trees to talk to me’
in stark contrast to the horror that nature will bring the child later in the poem , nature signifies hope for the child.The poet gives the child hope only to take it away to get the reader to sympathize with the child
What other poems could Prayer b4 birth be compared to?
Half past two, hide and seek,poem at thirty nine,tyger
Why can Half past two and prayer before birth be compared?
Both provide the reader with the point of view of a child but in a prayer before birth the child is not born yet where as in half past two the child is born. Both have been subject to/discuss neglect by those around them
Why can Hide and seek and prayer before birth be compared?
also about cruelty and lack of compassion towards children. loss of innocence.
Why can poem at thirty-nine and prayer before birth be compared?
provides a contrasting idea of an individual becoming an adult and something to be proud of where macniece is ashamed of her humanity
