“Prayer Before Birth” is a poem written by Irish poet Louis MacNeice in 1944, published as the first poem in his collection Springboard. In the poem, MacNeice expresses concerns about the ongoing conflict of World War II. "Prayer Before Birth" continues in the style of his earlier poetry, in which MacNeice constructs individual character vignettes within the space of the poem.
The poem addresses the fears and anxieties during the Second World War through the perspective of an unborn child. The speaker reveals the bleakness of the world that awaits him full of horrors and threats. It takes on the form of prayer as the speaker addresses God and humanity in a plea to protect his innocence from wickedness. It critiques the conformity and lack of freewill thereof that smothers individuality in a sullied modern society.
This poem is a criticism of the self-destructive nature of humanity that was witnessed in the most devastating warfare. MacNeice chooses an unborn child as the speaker to convey the anxieties of an adult corrupted and traumatized by the world’s tyranny.
