Prayer before Birth by Louis MacNeice

Prayer before Birth by Louis MacNeice

I am not yet born; O hear me.
Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat 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, skies to sing to me, birds and a white light
in the back of my mind to guide me.


I am not yet born; rehearse me
In the parts I must play and the cues I must taken 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 the 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.