Speaker
The speaker is unidentified, but uses the first-person plural throughout the poem. Therefore, we can assume that they are referring to humanity as a whole in their descriptions. The speaker's meditative, wise tone helps the reader trust them. The speaker also references the faithlessness of the world around them, letting us know that they live in a contemporary and relatively secular society, and yet that they have a finely tuned sense of spirituality.
The Woman
The poem's first example of a prayer found in the wider world is that of a woman, whose distress is alleviated by the song emanating from a nearby tree. She is never named, but is described as lifting her face from "the sieve of her hands," a gesture that tells us she is upset. However, an image from the natural world—"the minims sung by a tree"—momentarily relieve her feelings. The woman is described specifically enough to be considered a character in her own right, but she can also be thought of as a stand-in for anyone having a spiritual experience induced by the natural world.
The Man
In the second stanza, Duffy introduces the example of a man who is comforted in a moment of faithlessness and isolation by the sound of a train outside. To the man, the train's sound is reminiscent of a Latin mass. In a short space, Duffy tells us a great deal about this character, suggesting that he was raised a devout Catholic and lost his faith as he aged. His experience when listening to the train suggests that people without traditional religious belief can still find fulfillment in the customs of religion. It also suggests that the most unglamorous and modern experiences, such as listening to a train, have meaningful and even sacred elements.
The Lodger
In the third stanza, Duffy describes a lodger who stares out at a town in the English Midlands. The fact that this individual is a lodger, staying in temporary housing, suggests their loneliness and sadness, as well as their disconnection from the community around them. The town they inhabit is unnamed, further emphasizing their alienation. However, the sound of piano scales acts as consolation. This suggests that the lodger has their own associations with the scales, which, in turn, reminds the reader that even the disconnected and isolated lodger has their own past and their own web of memories and connections.
