Prayer Before Birth

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

• Dramatic monologue
• In this poem, they are revealing their concerns about the world, not aspects of themselves

Question 2

Main themes

Answer 2

• Fear
• Desperation
• Lack of control/inevitability
• Vulnerability
• Childhood and innocence
• Religion/prayer

Question 3

Literal shape of poem (stanzaic structure)

Answer 3

• Could mimic the growth of a baby
• Could mimic contractions of the womb
• Both show the unborn child’s impending birth, meaning his concerns are urgent and desperate, yet he cannot do anything about it

Question 4

Rhyme scheme

Answer 4

• Penultimate word of the first line of each stanza rhymes with penultimate word of the last line
• Shows how it is inevitable that what he is concerned about will come true - desperation and lack of control

Question 5

Inclusion of many imperatives

Answer 5

As the child is unborn, he has a total lack of control over the inevitable suffering he is going to endure, therefore he uses imperatives to try and establish some control

Question 6

‘I am not yet born’

Answer 6

• Anaphora
• Highlights how the unborn child has these concerns before they are even born, and is innocent, vulnerable and has no control over what is happening
• This emphasises the inevitability of his concerns as he is not yet born but he already knows he is going to suffer from these things

The idea of inevitability can be given a religious meaning in how humans have a predilection to sin, stemming from Original Sin

Question 7

‘O hear me’

Answer 7

• ‘O’ is ecphonesis (shortened exclamatory phrased)
• It also sounds like a prayer to God
• This highlights the young childs desperation

Question 8

‘Let not the bloodsucking bat’

Answer 8

• ‘Let not’ is anastrophe
• This highlights the biblical nature of the poem and how he is praying out of desperation

Question 9

‘bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the club-footed ghoul come near me’

Answer 9

• Polysyndetic list
• Emphasises the enormity of his concerns and the fear he possesses for these concerns
• Assonance and alliteration also makes it seem childish which highlights the vulnerability and innocence of the unborn child and how he cannot do anything about his concerns

Question 10

‘with tall walls wall me’

Answer 10

• Polyptoton
• Shows the range of his concerns
• The verb ‘walls’ shows how he feels people are malicious and actively trying to violate and trap him

Question 11

‘strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me’

Answer 11

• Assonance and alliteration
• Makes it seem frightening, though creates a childish tone
• This childish tone juxtaposes the luridness of torture, manipulation and deception, which shows how innocent those who often suffer are

Question 12

‘wise lies’

Answer 12

• Oxymoron
• Illustrates the depth of the manipulation and deception the unborn child is concerned he will have to face

Question 13

‘grass to grow for me, trees to talk to me, sky to sing to me’

Answer 13

• Alliteration, asyndetic list and personification
• Presents a pleasant image of nature whereby it is the good which purges the evil of mankind
• It is what the child thinks he should experience (in all its pleasant enormity), yet shows it is likely not to be what he receives

Question 14

‘and a white light in the back of my mind to guide me’

Answer 14

• ‘white light’ is a metaphor
• ‘White’ is presented as good, perhaps even holy, which emphasises the prayerful nature of this poem
• It is in direct contrast to ‘black racks’, showing that white is good and black is evil
• Shows how evil is inevitable, so you must be guided to avoid it

Question 15

‘forgive me’

Answer 15

Shows how despite the fact that he is not even born, he is still asking for forgiveness, which highlights how inevitable he feels being coerced into wrongdoing is

Question 16

‘my words when they speak me’ and ‘my thoughts when they think me’ and ‘my death when they live me’

Answer 16

• Ambigious pronouns, repetition, polyptoton
• Highlights how he feels extremely passive in what he is concerned he might do or be coerced into doing in the future and is powerless to do anything about it

Question 17

‘my treason engendered by traitors’

Answer 17

• Polyptoton
• Shows how there will be consequences as severe as ‘treason’ as a result of the actions he is forced to commit

Question 18

‘my death when they live me’

Answer 18

• Anthithesis
• Represents the breadth of his lack of control

Question 19

‘rehearse me’ and ‘I must play the cues I must take’

Answer 19

• Semantic field of theatrical lexis
• Shows his concerns over his lack of control and how he feels like he will be a ‘puppet’ for others

Question 20

‘In the parts I must play’

Answer 20

• Modal verb
• Shows the inevitability of being forced into doing things against your will

Question 21

‘mountains frown at me’

Answer 21

• Personification
• This is very intimidating, especially to an unborn child
• It feels as if the whole world is going to be against you (isolation)

Question 22

‘lovers laugh at me’

Answer 22

• Alliteration
• Shows how he fears humiliation in his future life

Question 23

‘let not the man who is beast or thinks he is God come near me’

Answer 23

References dictatorial leaders and the influence they have on the common people

Question 24

‘O fill me With strength against those’

Answer 24

• Enjambementand ecphonesis
• Emphasises ‘With strength’ to highlight the strength he will need to combat the ever-controlling nature of society

Question 25

‘would make me a cog in a machine’

Answer 25

• Extended metaphor in this stanza
• Creates the sense that society is a machine and humans are cogs - emphasises the lack of control he feels he will have over his actions and his fate

Question 26

‘would blow me like thistledown hither’ and ‘like water held in the hands’

Answer 26

• Similies describing weak objects/substances
• Shows how impressionable people are to the external forces of others, and his concerns regarding this

Question 27

‘Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me’

Answer 27

• Metaphor
• Shows how he feels people will turn him into a lifeless, inaminate object with no agency of his fate
• ‘Spill me’ demonstrates how he feels his life will become meaningless and inconsequential
• Both of which are things he feels he is vulnerable to and powerless to do anything against

Question 28

‘Otherwise kill me’

Answer 28

• Climax of the poem - simple sentence
• Shows how extreme his concerns are to the point that if they cannot be addressed, he would rather not live