“Prayer” was written by the Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate of the UK from 2009 to 2019. The poem explores what traditional religious faith can mean in modern society, suggesting that conventional spirituality can be hard to come by while also implying that some forms of faith can be found in the most mundane aspects of daily life. The poem's form mirrors its thematic ideas, as “Prayer” is a contemporary sonnet; it follows some traditional rules of the form while also making the form (like its conception of religious faith) fresh and new. “Prayer” was included in Duffy’s 1993 collection Mean Time.
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The Full Text of “Prayer”
The Full Text of “Prayer”
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“Prayer” Summary
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“Prayer” Themes
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Faith and Doubt in Modern Life
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-14
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Prayer”
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Lines 1-2
Some days, although ...
... utters itself. -
Lines 2-4
So, a woman ...
... a sudden gift. -
Lines 5-6
Some nights, although ...
... small familiar pain; -
Lines 7-8
then a man ...
... of a train. -
Lines 9-11
Pray for us ...
... a Midlands town. -
Lines 11-12
Then dusk, and ...
... named their loss. -
Lines 13-14
Darkness outside. Inside, ...
... Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.
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“Prayer” Symbols
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Music
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 4: “the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.”
- Lines 9-10: “Grade 1 piano scales / console the lodger”
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Darkness and Night
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 5: “Some nights”
- Line 11: “Then dusk,”
- Line 13: “Darkness outside.”
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“Prayer” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Allusion
Where allusion appears in the poem:- Lines 5-6: “the truth / enters our hearts”
- Line 8: “Latin chanting”
- Line 10: “the lodger”
- Line 11: “a Midlands town”
- Line 14: “Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.”
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Parallelism
Where parallelism appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer / utters itself.”
- Lines 2-3: “a woman will lift / her head”
- Lines 5-6: “Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth / enters our hearts,”
- Line 7: “a man will stand stock-still”
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Repetition
Where repetition appears in the poem:- Line 1: “Some,” “pray,” “ prayer”
- Line 5: “Some”
- Line 9: “Pray”
- Line 12: “name,” “named”
- Line 13: “prayer”
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Imagery
Where imagery appears in the poem:- Lines 2-4
- Lines 7-8
- Lines 9-12
- Line 13
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Metaphor
Where metaphor appears in the poem:- Line 3: “the sieve of her hands”
- Line 4: “the minims sung by a tree”
- Line 8: “the distant Latin chanting of a train.”
- Line 13: “the radio's prayer”
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Personification
Where personification appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “a prayer / utters itself”
- Line 4: “the minims sung by a tree”
- Lines 5-6: “the truth / enters our hearts”
- Line 8: “the distant Latin chanting of a train”
- Line 13: “the radio's prayer”
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Simile
Where simile appears in the poem:- Lines 11-12: “someone calls / a child's name as though they named their loss.”
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Enjambment
Where enjambment appears in the poem:- Lines 1-2: “prayer / utters”
- Lines 2-3: “lift / her”
- Lines 3-4: “stare / at”
- Lines 5-6: “truth / enters”
- Lines 7-8: “youth / in”
- Lines 9-10: “scales / console”
- Lines 10-11: “across / a”
- Lines 11-12: “calls / a”
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End-Stopped Line
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 4: “gift.”
- Line 6: “pain;”
- Line 8: “train.”
- Line 12: “loss.”
- Line 13: “prayer -”
- Line 14: “Finisterre.”
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Alliteration
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 2: “woman will”
- Line 3: “her head,” “sieve,” “her hands,” “stare”
- Line 4: “sung,” “sudden”
- Line 7: “stand stock-still,” “hearing his”
- Line 9: “Pray,” “piano”
- Line 10: “lodger looking”
- Line 13: “radio's”
- Line 14: “Rockall”
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Consonance
Where consonance appears in the poem:- Line 1: “prayer”
- Line 2: “utters itself,” “woman will lift”
- Line 3: “her head,” “sieve,” “her hands,” “stare”
- Line 4: “sung,” “sudden”
- Line 5: “Some nights,” “faithless,” “truth”
- Line 6: “enters,” “hearts,” “small familiar”
- Line 7: “will stand stock-still”
- Line 8: “in,” “distant Latin chanting,” “train”
- Line 9: “Pray,” “piano scales”
- Line 10: “console,” “lodger looking,” “across”
- Line 11: “Midlands town,” “Then dusk,” “someone calls”
- Line 12: “child's,” “loss”
- Line 13: “Darkness outside,” “Inside,” “radio's prayer”
- Line 14: “Rockall,” “Finisterre”
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Assonance
Where assonance appears in the poem:- Line 2: “will lift”
- Line 3: “hands and”
- Line 4: “sung,” “sudden”
- Line 7: “man,” “stand”
- Line 8: “in,” “distant Latin chanting”
- Line 9: “Pray,” “Grade,” “scales”
- Line 12: “name,” “they named”
- Line 13: “prayer”
- Line 14: “Finisterre”
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Sibilance
Where sibilance appears in the poem:- Line 3: “sieve,” “stare”
- Line 4: “sung,” “sudden”
- Line 5: “Some nights,” “faithless”
- Line 6: “hearts,” “small”
- Line 7: “stand stock-still”
- Line 8: “distant”
- Line 9: “us,” “scales”
- Line 10: “console,” “across”
- Line 11: “dusk,” “someone”
- Line 12: “loss”
- Line 13: “Darkness outside. Inside”
- Line 14: “Finisterre”
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“Prayer” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Sieve
- Minims
- Lodger
- Midlands
- Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.
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(Location in poem: Line 3: “the sieve of her hands”)
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Prayer”
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Form
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Meter
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Rhyme Scheme
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“Prayer” Speaker
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“Prayer” Setting
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Literary and Historical Context of “Prayer”
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More “Prayer” Resources
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External Resources
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Audio of Carol Ann Duffy Reading “Prayer” — Listen to Carol Ann Duffy read “Prayer” in this video created by the University of Lincoln in the UK.
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Biography of Carol Ann Duffy — Learn more about Carol Ann Duffy’s life and work in this article from the Poetry Foundation.
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Carol Ann Duffy on Poetry — Learn more about the personal experiences underlying Duffy's poetry and why she understands poetry as a vocation.
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Interview with Carol Ann Duffy — Duffy discusses what it means to be the first woman and first openly LGBTQ writer to be Poet Laureate, and why she regards poetry as the “music of humanity.”
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The British Shipping Forecast — Learn more about the British Shipping Forecast—referenced at the end of “Prayer”—and what it means, in this short video from the BBC. This video was created in 2017, the year that marked the 150th anniversary of the Shipping Forecast.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Carol Ann Duffy
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