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Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained | |||
"Prayer for the Morning Headlines" by Daniel Berrigan is a poignant and powerful invocation that seeks divine mercy and intervention in a world marred by violence, suffering, and historical atrocities. Through a litany of vivid imagery and references to specific events, Berrigan crafts a prayer that is both a lamentation and a plea for peace, highlighting the human capacity for cruelty while simultaneously calling for compassion and transformation. The poem opens with a universal appeal for peace, acknowledging the human reliance on divine assistance to overcome the distress and turmoil that pervade daily life. This introduction sets the tone for a prayer that is deeply aware of the pain and injustice that fill the morning headlines. Berrigan's plea for mercy extends to the most vulnerable — women and children rendered homeless by conflict and adverse conditions, depicted with the simile "ranting like bees among gutted barns and stiles." This imagery evokes a sense of disorientation and desperation, emphasizing the chaos that displaces families and devastates communities. The call for mercy intensifies as Berrigan describes those enduring violence, "clinging one to another under fire," a vivid portrayal of human solidarity in the face of terror. The comparison of artillery to "grapes the grape shot strikes" serves as a stark reminder of the indiscriminate nature of violence that shatters lives and communities. In addressing the dead, Berrigan's prayer becomes a dirge for those whose lives and hopes have been extinguished by conflict. The metaphor of a dead man standing "like a tree between strike and fall" captures the abrupt and brutal end to human potential caused by violence. This imagery, alongside the plea to "have mercy, dead man," underscores the shared humanity with those who have perished and the collective mourning for lost possibilities. The poem then transitions into a roll call of places synonymous with historical violence and atrocities — Hiroshima, Dresden, Guernica, Selma, Sharpeville, Coventry, Dachau — invoking their names as reminders of human capacity for destruction. This litany serves as a bridge from "innocence to us," implicating the reader and contemporary society in the continuum of violence that defines much of human history. Berrigan concludes with an imperative to "seed hope" and "flower peace," transforming the prayer from a catalog of despair into a call to action. This closing charge embodies the poem's central message: despite the overwhelming evidence of human cruelty, there remains a divine and human imperative to strive for a world where peace and hope can flourish. "Prayer for the Morning Headlines" is a meditation on the sorrow and resilience that characterize the human condition. Through his prayer, Berrigan challenges readers to confront the realities of violence and injustice while holding onto the possibility of redemption and peace. The poem serves as a reminder of the power of prayer and poetry to comfort, inspire, and mobilize individuals toward a more compassionate and just world. POEM TEXT: https://danielberrigan.org/poems/
| Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE LITTLE ELF-MAN by JOHN KENDRICK BANGS THE SPIRIT OF SHAKESPEARE: 1 by GEORGE MEREDITH THE POET'S SONG FOR HIS WIFE by BRYAN WALLER PROCTER THE PORTRAIT by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THE WALNUT-TREE OF BOARSTELL: CANTO 2 by WILLIAM BASSE |
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