Prayer Before Birth

Another hazard which there is in life is if we take all the wonderful things that we do have for granted. The poet gives some examples of the nice thing that we can have in life and the majority of the time we take these particular things for granted. These examples are also most of the joys of childhood, which suggests that the child is afraid to grow up he wants to stay a child and flourish in the thrills of his freedom. ”Water” is simple and pure and a necessity to live on. So when the child wants “water to dandle” him, he wants a simple life and pure love and affection. The line “grass to grow for me” ha ‘g’ alliteration and reminds us of our fantasies of endless green fields and a clean free environment. This is a contrast to the “tall walls” in the second stanza. There is a ‘t’ alliteration in the line “tree to talk / to me”, this shows that the child would prefer to talk to the enlightened trees than listen to the luring “lies”. In the line “sky to sing to me, birds” there is an ‘s’ alliteration. This is about the endless free sky which surrounds the world and all the creatures that bask and sing for glee of it’s beauty. The “white light” has internal rhyme and is a symbol of purity, innocence and peace but the “light” represents the sun in the sky and its warmth. The “light” guides the child, gliding through the “sky” like “birds” to heaven. In a perfect world no one would take anything for granted and they would appreciate everything they have. In a perfect world we would be young and free forever.

?stoat”, a sly, sharp-toothed, quick-footed animal like a person who leads you into traps and deserts you when you need them most. In the second line the ‘b’ alliteration in “bloodsucking bat”, ‘t’ alliteration in the “bat or the rat or the stoat” and the “bat” and “rat” internal rhyme create a sort of spitting sound which fits the imagery of these animals perfectly. The line “club-footed ghoul” creates an image of an awful person that haunts and hassles you,...