1. Prayer Before Birth
Louis MacNeice

2. Discuss What do you think of when you hear the following words:
Innocence
War
Civilization
How does society and the world change you as you grow older?

3. Louis MacNeice Belfast-born poet (1910 – 1963)
He wrote ‘Prayer Before Birth’ during WW2.
He liked to deal with issues of the day in ironic, comic and tragic ways.
‘Prayer Before Birth’ is a plea or prayer to god from an unborn baby. The unborn speaker doesn’t want to be dehumanized or used for evil by society or war.

4. WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK!
Literary Techniques
WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK!
The poem juxtaposes war and innocence.
Juxtaposition is when two contrasting ideas, places, etc. are placed side by side in a text.
Assonance is used to create rhythm and to support the imagery.
Assonance is defined as the act of repeating a vowel sound in a phrase or sentence, often in poetry.

5. WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK!
Structure and form
It is a dramatic monologue written in free verse.
It is in the form of a prayer, i.e. making requests of god.
Each stanza begins with a reference to the fact that the speaker has not been born.
The first and last line of each stanza end with the word ‘me’.

6. Discuss the effect on meaning the following have
Technique
Evidence
Effect on meaning
Imagery
‘bloodsucking bat’
‘mountains/frown at me’
Repetition
‘I am not yet born’
‘come near me’
Religious language
‘forgive’
‘sins’
‘God’

7. Figurative language
Why is the speaker worried about in the following lines?
‘would make me a cog in a machine’
‘would blow me like thistledown’
‘Let them not make me a stone’
Brainstorm your ideas.

8. WRITE THIS INTO YOUR DIARY!
Assignment
WRITE THIS INTO YOUR DIARY!
Due the week of November 6th
Choose ONE of the exam questions to answer on the bottom of p.89 in your textbook.
Write –
an introduction
at least 4 PEEs
a conclusion