Prayer

Question 1

1. Some days, although we cannot pray,a prayer (enjab) utters itself’
2. ‘So, a woman will lift (enjab) her head from the sieve of her hands and stare (enjab) at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.’

Answer 1

1. Repeated caesura, personification, the authoritarian nature of prayer, she recognises the value of prayer. She transcends daily sins to retreat to religion.
2. The women is distressed, subdued position, heteronormative expectations of the woman as the symbol of domesticity the ‘sieve’ links to the kitchen. Personification as singing relates to joy, moment of the tree.

Question 2

1. ’ that small familiar pain;’
2. ‘then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth (enjab) in the distant Latin chanting of a train’

Answer 2

1. revisitation to history.
2. Sibilance, fearful. He is transported back to religion- poem exposes the abuse within the Catholic Church and traumatic experiences faced. ‘chanting’- cult like language, indoctrination?, Biblical language demonstrates how religion infiltrates society

Question 3

1. ‘Pray for us now. Grade I piano scales.’
2. ‘a Midlands town’

Answer 3

1. Shows how the Church impacts different age groups, confession booth, church imagery.
2. Ambiguity represents how it impacts everyone and reflects the nature of God as omnipotent and omniscient, lacks identity. Those disadvantaged are being watched over by God.

Question 4

1. ‘Inside, the radio’s prayer’

Answer 4

1. Loosely defines prayer and shows how religious content is prevalent in society. Shows the reliabiliy of the radio’s broadcast which people find comfort in.

Question 5

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Answer 5

‘She sees the spiritual in the everyday’
‘poetry and prayer are very similar’

Question 6

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Answer 6

Expectation of the 1960 housewife.
Duffy relinquished religion in her teens.

Question 7

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Answer 7

Faith Healing.