Before I Knocked (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Dylan Thomas
- First Published: 1934
- Type of Work: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: Journalism or journalists, Religion, Pain, Christianity, Childbirth, Jesus Christ, Life and death, Consciousness
The Poem
“Before I Knocked” is a monologue consisting of seven six-line stanzas and a concluding stanza of four lines. The speaker throughout is Christ, who describes his consciousness of his own existence, and the conditions under which that consciousness functions, from the prenatal state to his incarnation in human form.
In the first stanza the speaker describes his essence, before he became a fertilized egg in the womb, as liquid, shapeless as water. This essence might also be understood as the seminal fluid. Christ already possesses, before his growth in the...
[The entire page is 1523 words long]
