THE TELEPHONE CALL
BY: FLEUR ADCOCK
BHAKTI AND ANGEL 10.2
CONTEXT/ POETS BACKGROUND
• Fleur Adcock is a New Zealand poet and editor, of English and Northern Irish
ancestry who lived most of her life in England
• Fleur Adcock was born in Papa Kura, New Zealand in 1934. She moved with
her family to England during World War II and then went back to New
Zealand when she was thirteen. She later returned to England in 1963.
WHAT IS THE POEM ABOUT?
• The Telephone Call is about a short telephone conversation
between the poet and “Universal Lotteries” and they told the
poet she was one of the lucky winners. She was going to be a
millionaire or multi-millionaire within no time. Naturally, she was
thrilled. Moreover, they told the poet of “giving way to” her
“emotion”. After a moment, she realized what they were talking
about might be fake. That’s why she told them when she would
get the cheque or the money. Humorously, they answered they
didn’t deal with money. The experience was what they dealt in
and “the line went dead”.
ANALYSIS
•
Stanza 1-The poet received a call from the “Universal Lotteries” as she won the
top prize in the “Ultra-super Global Special” lucky draw. they asked the poet
what she would do with a million or more than a million pounds. After saying that,
they sarcastically added, “not that it makes a lot of difference/ once you’re a
millionaire.” Thereafter they laughed. So, from this section, the poet gets a hint
that she didn’t win any prize at all. They were just mocking her innocence.
•
Stanza 2-The theme of appearance vs. reality is present in the first few lines of
the poem. There is feud in the poet’s mind about reality and the illusion of getting
a million pounds. She lost her senses and felt like her brain had floated off
through the window. To present her state, she uses an image of a flying saucer.
•
Stanza 3-The apparent truth made her so vulnerable that she even became
emotional. She found it hard t express anything, but the person from the
company urged her to give way to her emotions.
• Stanza 4-The poet started to come out of her hallucination. She informed
them that she hadn't bought any tickets in the past few years. They assured
her not to worry about tickets, which then questions their authenticity.
• Stanza 5- refers to the method using which Universal Lotteries selected
winners. Here, the poet presents how humans depend on luck rather than
making it work for them. The company said they bought the old files from
other lottery companies and entered the data in their computer for a lucky
draw. In the draw, the poet’s name came out. But, the poet already
recovering from her hallucination, told the company she would believe it after
seeing the cheque.
• Stanza 6-They replied they didn’t deal in money or such kinds of stuff.
“Experiences” were what they dealt with. This stanza expresses how
memorable experiences and they are much more precious than money. So,
that was her prize that she would never forget. After that, they congratulated
the poet and hung up the call.
VOICE / SPEAKER
• The poet “Fleur Adcock” talks about her telephone call with a company.
STRUCTURE
• Consists of six stanzas each with 8 lines. It’s a free verse poem. The poem
doesn’t have any specific meter scheme.. The rising and falling internal
rhythm of the poem outlines the mental state of the poem that changes in
each stanza of the poem.
THEMES
•
Greed is an underlying theme in the poem.
TONE AND MOOD
•
There are several tones in this short dialogue, including an upbeat tone from the
company representative, and the excited poet. The transition to a sceptical tone ‘I’ll
believe it when I see the cheque’.
•
Her language in the poem is very easy to understand, especially as a conversation.
Her subject matter,.
•
The poet uses a cheerful conversation ending ‘Have a nice day!’
•
Down-to-earth, whimsical, satirical and upbeat- from the representative and the
“lottery winner”
•
Sceptical tone- ‘Ill believe it when I see the cheque’
•
Pleasant tone- from the company representative [source.] ‘Have a nice day!’
•
Fleur plays on the universal wish which is to win the grand lottery prize and laughs at
humans with greed.
•
The language in the poem is easy to use since it is a conversation
POETIC DEVICES
• Use of enjambment.
• There is sarcasm “Or, actually, with more than a million –” contains sarcasm
• As well as irony in this poem.
• There are three instances where the poet uses ellipsis.
•
In the second stanza, there is a metaphor in “top of my head” and simile in
the last line.
• There is a personification in “We buy up the files,/ feed the names into our
computer”. In the last stanza, the poet metaphorically compares the
experience to a reward or prize.
•
In the last line, there is a synecdoche.(Synecdoche is a figure of speech in
which a “part" of something is used to represent its “whole.”)
• Internal rhymes, such as ‘dry’ and ‘cry’ (lines 19 and 20 respectively), and
• ‘way’ and ‘day’ (lines 22 and 23 respectively).
•
Punctuation (commas, ellipses, dashes, question marks) help the reader to
hear intonations in the voices of the two people on the phone.
•
Consonance can be seen in the first stanza as the company representative
introduces an unexpected message.
•
Hyperbole has been used to exaggerate the representative dialogue to
make certain words or phrases stand out