TELEPHONE CONVERSATION(WOVEN WORDS CLASS 11)

ABOUT THE POET
Wole Soyinka (born 1934), is a famous Nigerian poet and playwright. He was educated at the Government College in Ibadan, Nigeria and, later, at Leeds University, England, where he took a degree in English. He taught in the London schools and also worked in the Royal Court Theatre. He returned to Nigeria when he was about twenty-five. He has been one of the leading figures in Nigerian theatre, writing a number of successful plays and also leading a theatrical company. He is the first African to receive the Nobel Prize for literature (1986). His writings are known for their humour and satire.

Telephone Conversation

1. The price seemed reasonable, location
Indifferent. The landlady swore she lived
Off premises. Nothing remained
But self-confession. ‘Madam,’ I warned,
‘I hate a wasted journey—I am African.’
Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurised good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold-rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was, foully.

2. HOW DARK ?’... I had not misheard... ‘ARE YOU LIGHT
OR VERY DARK ?’ Button B. Button A. Stench
Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak.
Red booth. Red pillar-box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar. It was real! Shamed
By ill-mannered silence, surrender
Pushed dumbfounded to beg simplification.

3. Considerate she was, varying the emphasis—
‘ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?’ Revelation came.
‘You mean—like plain or milk chocolate?
Her assent was clinical, crushing in its light
Impersonality. Rapidly, wave-length adjusted,
I chose. ‘West African sepia’—and as afterthought,
“down in my passport." Silence for spectroscopic
Flight of fancy, till truthfulness changed her accent
Hard on the mouthpiece. ‘WHAT’S THAT?’ conceding
‘DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT IS.’ ‘Like brunette.’
‘THAT’S DARK, ISN’T IT?’ ‘Not altogether.

4. Facially, I am brunette, but madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blonde. Friction, caused—
Foolishly madam—by sitting down, has turned
My bottom raven black—One moment madam!’—sensing
Her receiver rearing on the thunderclap
About my ears—‘Madam,’ I pleaded, ‘wouldn’t you rather
See for yourself ?’ 

1. State the central theme of the poem.

The landlady is described as a polite, well-bred woman, even though she is shown to be shallowly racist. The speaker is described as being genuinely apologetic for his skin colour, even though he has no reason to be sorry for something which he was born with and has no control over. In this short poem, we can see that the speaker is an intelligent person by his use of high diction and quick wit, not the savage that the landlady assumes he is because of his skin colour. The primary theme of "Telephone Conversation" is racism.

2. Explain the use of irony in the poem.

The poet uses irony to depict the absurdity of racism and create comical effects in the poem. In the beginning of the poem, the speaker starts his "self-confession" when he reveals his skin colour to the lady.

3. What does the opening lines reveal “The price seemed reasonable, location

Indifferent”.

The first sentence includes a pun and introduces the central theme of the poem.
Puns involve words with similar or identical sounds but with different meanings.
The poet here informs the readers that things are not going to be as straight forward as it appears.
4. Explain – “Caught I was, foully”
The black man was reduced to shame.
5. "Madam, " I warned,
"I hate a wasted journey-I am African."
A sudden unexpected silence followed and the awkward pause in the conversation is strengthened by a caesura, trying to emphasize the impact of the African's race being revealed to the land lady. An uneasy atmosphere is created and the word 'silenced' reiterates the sudden change in the land lady's attitude as well as the man's intuitive sensitivity towards the unfriendliness on the other end of the phone.
6. Silence. Silenced transmission of
Pressurized good-breeding.' 

It seemed as if the narrator was caught in a foul act and the expression ' Pressurized good-breeding' is only an ironical manifestations of the polite manners the land-lady was supposed to have for the job of renting premises.

7. Tension rises with the explicit racial discrimination conveyed through the question- "How Dark?"
After considerable period of silence when the land-lady spoke again, her words seemed to come from between lipstick coated lips that held between them a long gold-rolled cigarette-holder and the impression she gave off was that as if her status in the society was all of a sudden upgraded. Undoubtedly, the poet' s power of imagination enables him to visualize an affluent and sophisticated British land- lady belonging to the so-called progressive and urban world on the other side.
8. 'Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered
Omnibus squelching tar.'

The narrator is jolted back into reality from his trance like state and he makes a frantic attempt to ascertain the situation. The revelation comes with the repetition of the question by the land lady with varying emphasis.

ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT? You mean-like plain or milk chocolate?'

It was soul shattering to the narrator that the land lady could be so insensitive to his feelings. Fuming with anger, the man decided to inflict similar humiliation on the racist woman choosing a superior vocabulary and replying in an acutely sarcastic tone.
9. 'Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see the rest of me.'
Unabashed he goes on to state that the palm of his hand and the soles of his feet are peroxide blonde and that friction by sitting down had turned his bottom -raven black. With a slow but furious realization the lady began to set the receiver down. She realized that the man became furious about the questions she asked and finally she hung the phone.
10. What would hide-and-speak mean.
Here the poet is transparent and honest in his statements but whereas the landlady lady is not straightforward but she feels superior about herself. He means to say that people who are dark are transparent while people who are white are not so. There is a contrast in the behaviour and attitude of the two people.