Commentary on Prayer Before Birth by Louise MacNeice

             This poem is about the child praying to his mother, God and society to make the world a better place for him to live in without the current hazards. The child represents society and so when he says "I fear the human race", he is showing that he is afraid of his own kind and of himself, "me", the most common word in the poem. If the child cannot have a world without these torments he prays for, he state to "otherwise kill me", showing how he is thinking of death before he is born, he does not want to be born and he does not see anything in the world which he could find worth living for.
             One of the hazards of life, according to the poet, are horrible people. The human race is the cause of all the child's fears and of all humanity's own problems. In the first stanza there is a reference to three types of these individual people, rather than the human race in general. The images of the animals are actually referring to people. The "bloodsucking bat" takes life out, like people who use, take advantage of you and drain you of your positive energy and everything you have. The "rat", an animal that rings on plague, disease and infection, like evil cursed people who bring trouble, torment and disaster. The "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, with an eerie, low moan-like sound created by the assonance. What the unborn child sees as worth living for is to be surrounded by a community of helpful, unselfish people who hold happiness and pleasure in their hands hand. It is nicer to be encircled by people who try to please you, who catch you when you fall, rather than by people who make your lie miserable and trip you up.