Prayer before Birth - By Louise MacNeice

Prayer before Birth

-      By Louise MacNeice

  

        Louise MacNeice was an Irish poet. This poem was written on the height of Second World War. This Poem contain a deep meaning related the condition of world towards the War and how a little child is looking towards the world from the womb. 

Prayer before Birth

I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat or the
club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born, console me.
I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,
with strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,
on black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me
With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me, trees to talk
to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; forgive me
For the sins that in me the world shall commit, my words
when they speak me, my thoughts when they think me,
my treason engendered by traitors beyond me,
my life when they murder by means of my
hands, my death when they live me.

I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must take when
old men lecture me, bureaucrats hector me, mountains
frown at me, lovers laugh at me, the white
waves call me to folly and the desert calls
me to doom and the beggar refuses
my gift and my children curse me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,
Let not the man who is beast or who thinks he is God
come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me
With strength against those who would freeze my
humanity, would dragoon me into a lethal automaton,
would make me a cog in a machine, a thing with
one face, a thing, and against all those
who would dissipate my entirety, would
blow me like thistledown hither and
thither or hither and thither
like water held in the
hands would spill me.

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

     The child is not yet born but it contains the understanding towards the world and its dark sides. There are bad habits and people which can control the innocent mind of the child but child wants to stay away from that all that miseries. A child wants to console itself from the people and bad habits but wants to get natural elements like water, grass, tree, sky, birds and white light which is a sign of supernatural power and morality.

    

       The child apologizes in advance for the crime he is going to commit which will be taught by society to him. He also apologizes for words he is going to speak and for thoughts which will overpower him. He can be a murderer because society will make him so. He apologizes for every sin he is going to commit.

     

       A child pray that rehearse him even at the time when he becomes the most unwanted person on the earth, when beggars deny taking his gift and his own children curse him.

   

     In the last stanza Child pray to fill his life with strength against those who tries to destroy his humanity and let them not make the child like them. The best line which child says is,

“Let them not make me a stone and let them not spill me.
Otherwise kill me.”

   

       Child wants to live with morals otherwise he wants to die. In this poem we can feel the presence of religion as the poem is about prayer. The prayer is not to the God only but it is for all humans on the earth. The child is aware with everything in the womb and it makes it different from the normal unborn children. We can say that the unborn child is Christ and he wants to take birth but the condition of world is so bad that he prays for death before birth.