Traditional religion
In this poem, Duffy portrays a world in which organized and traditional religion has become inaccessible or unappealing. At the same time, she argues that spirituality and devotion are both necessary and irrepressible elements of the human condition. By supplying examples of moments in which people have religious experiences outside of traditional religious contexts, Duffy paints a picture of a world in which secularism, rather than replacing or negating religious life, simply offers it in nontraditional forms. She also hints, through the example of a train whose sound is reminiscent of Latin chanting, that secular experiences of spirituality can bear direct aesthetic connections to those found in organized religion.
Connection
While this poem offers examples of a wide variety of "prayers," they all have one thing in common: each prayer is a moment of connection between a person and something else in the world around them. The woman described in the first stanza connects with the natural world, through "the minims sung by a tree." The next example features a man who connects with the mechanical or industrial world, since he is unexpectedly affected by the sound of a train. He also connects to his own past, since the train reminds him of his childhood. Next, the lodger has a moment of connection with an unseen person practicing piano scales: the sound of the scales offers comfort to the lodger. In the same stanza, the person who calls a child's name experiences a feeling of connection to someone or something they have lost. Finally, when the boundaries between the reader and the poem's characters collapse in the final line, the reader experiences a radical moment of connection to the speaker themself—both are listening to and feeling affected by the same words. Collectively, these examples suggest that the very nature of prayer or spirituality is connection—whether to a God, as in traditional Christianity, or to other people and things in the world.
Modernity
This poem describes a twentieth-century, secular world in which traditional religious structures, such as prayer and church, are no longer prominent. But Duffy goes beyond making the case that spiritual power can be found outside of explicitly religious settings. She ventures that some of the most intense moments of spiritual connection can come from modern and secular innovations. In the poem, these include the sounds made by a train and a radio—relatively modern inventions that might be considered mundane or even vulgar. Therefore, rather than simply arguing that beautiful (non-religious) things can have religious significance, the poem demonstrates that things not usually considered beautiful can also have religious significance.
