# Prenatal Plagiarism explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Mina Loy.

## What happens

A poetic meditation on prenatal existence, the archetypal origins of human emotion, and the uncertain foundations of ethics and form.

## Themes in this chapter

### Childhood and Innocence

The poem explores prenatal and foetal states, evoking a pre-conscious, archetypal innocence before the imposition of social and ethical structures.

### The Body and Mortality

References to 'Foetal buffoons', 'proto-form', and 'blind eyes' suggest the vulnerability and materiality of the body from its earliest formation.

## Key lines

> In some Prenatal plagiarism Foetal buffoons Caught tricks — From archetypal pantomime Stringing emotions Looped aloft — For the blind eyes That Nature knows us with

Before birth, we are mere imitations, foolish fetuses learning gestures from a primordial play, stringing up feelings for the blind gaze of Nature.

_The poem critiques the idea of originality in human development, suggesting our emotions and actions are borrowed from archetypal patterns._

> What guaranty For the proto-form We fumble Our souvenir ethics to

What assurance is there for the primal shape to which we awkwardly attach our inherited moral codes?

_Questions the stability and validity of ethical systems derived from an uncertain, pre-formed origin._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/xxx
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_17_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters