Social Influence on Louis MacNeice: Analysis of "Prayer Before Birth" Anonymous College

Louis MacNeice was born as the youngest of the three children on 12 September 1907 (Fauske 10). MacNeice describes his own childhood as “a narrative of displacement and dislocation,” due to Ireland, his birth country, ended up being divided at the time, and due to his moving to England to attend school; the feeling of displacement is a social theme quite common in his literary works (Fauske viii). One person who greatly influenced his early works was Louis’s mother, Elizabeth. She suffered from an illness that resulted in a hysterectomy and was a cause of her depression. She believed that the reason for her needing the operation was Louis’s complicated birth. Having shared his mother’s belief, Louis, when he was only seven years old, was strongly affected by his mother’s death which can be seen in some of his poems and novels (Fauske 13, 14).

One instance of a poem about his mother is titled “Autobiography,” where he reminisces what life was like before her illness and depression, and discusses the aftermath of it, where his mother left their home and went to a nursing facility. MacNeice’s feelings are captured in the refrain, following every couplet, where the poet is resentfully saying: “Come back early or never come” (Fauske...