Prayer (Carol Ann Duffy poem) Summary

The poem begins with the speaker's assertion that prayer can occur in the secular world, and that it can even emerge of its own accord without willful interventions. A series of examples support this point. The poem first describes a woman in distress, who finds comfort in the sounds produced by a tree. The next example describes a man who hears a train in the distance and is vividly reminded of his Catholic upbringing. The speaker next evokes the Catholic prayer "Hail Mary," begging somebody—perhaps the reader—to "Pray for us." The next example describes a lodger in the English midlands, who hears a child's piano scales and feels comforted. The following example describes a person calling after a child and simultaneously evoking a loss—perhaps a loss in the past, and perhaps the feared or anticipated loss of the child. Finally, the poem describes a room in which a radio plays at night, with the words "Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre" emanating from it.