Prayer Before Birth

Question 1

Written in

Answer 1

1944- speaks of war times

Question 2

‘Wise lies’ ‘strong drugs’

Answer 2

Represents the propaganda that Hitler and the Nazis are spreading to convince people about things that aren’t true

Question 3

‘tall walls’

Answer 3

Metaphor for the pressure of social acceptance and is saying not to judge or stereotype

Question 4

Repetition of ‘I am not yet born’

Answer 4

Emphasis on the fact that he is dreading the world that he is about it enter

Question 5

‘Grass to grow’
‘Trees to talk’
‘Sky to sing’

Answer 5

Repetition of alliteration and sibilance emphasis the Beauty of nature and shows that the world isn’t bad but the human activities that occur there are

Takes a happier town to emphasis this and contrast with the other verses to show the world was once beautiful

Question 6

Enjambament

Answer 6

To show flow of thoughts

Question 7

For the sins that in me the world shall commit

Answer 7

Forgive me for what society is going to turn me into

Question 8

‘Mountains frown at me’

Answer 8

Personification to show the world is turning evil

Question 9

Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is god come near me

Answer 9

Metaphor for hitler

Question 10

’ a cog in a machine’

‘Lethal automaton’

Answer 10

Verse 7 contains an extended Metaphor referring to the army as a ‘lethal automation’ and the ‘cog’ as a soilder. Shows loss of humanity and emotion within the war.

Question 11

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

Answer 11

Metaphor saying don’t make me cold/emotionless and don’t use me against others

Question 12

Otherwise kill me

Answer 12

Abortion

Rather not have been born

Question 13

‘Black racks’ ‘blood baths’

Answer 13

Symbolic reference to war/metaphor