Telephone Conversation
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
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.
"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.
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 clanged 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.
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blond. 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?"
Analysis
This poem starts with an African asking to rent a flat. The poet expressed the fact the African saying that he was an African as a “self confession” (Line 4), as if he has done something wrong, when it is not even his fault that he is an African and there is nothing wrong with being African. This just shows that even he himself does not feel comfortable with himself being an African, which shows how severely the dark-coloured people are despised in other parts of the world.
The fifth line, with the African saying that he hates a wasted journey and that he was African, makes me guess that the African have been rejected multiple times and does not want to let similar cases happen again. This shows the prejudicial minds of people. Some reasons which may cause such thinking may be that they feel that Africans are dirty and messy and do not want them to dirty the place, or that they are uneducated and undisciplined, and thus would be hard to control. I feel that these are just biases without any basis, and it is terrible to see that people still cling on to their biases stubbornly.
Then, from the seventh to ninth line, I can see that the landlady was rich. People who are rich are often seen as educated and sophisticated. However, this is not this case as we can see from the next line. The landlady asked how dark the African was, asking “Are you light or very dark?”. This shows how badly the landlady wanted to categorize the African. This is confirmed even further when we see that the poet said “Button B, Button A”. It shows a form of categorizing. The desperate attempt to categorize somebody you cannot understand
The 13th to 14th line shows that the African was very angry from the emphasis of the colour red in “Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered Omnibus”. This shows, in my opinion, a change in the persona. At the front, he felt ashamed that he was an African. Now, he feels that there is nothing wrong and he feels insulted by the landlady. Although they are not exactly contrasting, there is still a gradual change, I feel.
Then, later in line 17, the poet describes the landlady as “considerate” by repeating the question again in line 18. This is ironic as repeating the question was obviously rude but the poet described the landlady as “considerate” instead. Also, when the poet mentioned “Revelation came”, he was referring to him knowing the fact that the landlady was racist. This, I believe, is also an irony as I am of the opinion that the African knew the landlady was racist from the start, and did not only wait until then. Moreover, “revelation” is not very suitable in this context, and I guess the poet used it for ironic purposes.
Later, in line 22, we can see that the African is educated as he knows how to use the word “sepia”. He uses the expression “West African sepia” as he knows that the landlady is uneducated based on the fact that she asked the question of his skin colour in an unsophisticated way. This is ironic as it is the landlady who looks down on the African because of his skin colour but now, the truth is that the African is insulting her with his knowledge.
The African continues to insult the landlady by describing his face as “brunette”, the palm of his hand and the soles of his feet as “peroxide blond” and his bottom as “raven black”.
In addition, I noticed that all dialogues of the landlady is capitalized, giving her an image which paints her as simplistic and ignorant.
Why I chose Telephone Conversation
When I read the poem, I sympathized with the African in the poem and felt a sense of anger towards the landlady. I felt that discrimination was not supposed to exist in democratic societies, yet it still exists. In my opinion, have prejudice against people is already bad enough, and acting the prejudice out by discriminating against blacks is intolerable. However, despite my anger, I was glad for the educated African as he managed to insult the landlady without the landlady even knowing, which is like the good triumphing over the bad.
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
Pressurized good-breeding. Voice, when it came,
Lipstick coated, long gold rolled
Cigarette-holder pipped. Caught I was foully.
"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.
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 clanged 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.
Facially, I am brunette, but, madam, you should see
The rest of me. Palm of my hand, soles of my feet
Are a peroxide blond. 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?"
Analysis
This poem starts with an African asking to rent a flat. The poet expressed the fact the African saying that he was an African as a “self confession” (Line 4), as if he has done something wrong, when it is not even his fault that he is an African and there is nothing wrong with being African. This just shows that even he himself does not feel comfortable with himself being an African, which shows how severely the dark-coloured people are despised in other parts of the world.
The fifth line, with the African saying that he hates a wasted journey and that he was African, makes me guess that the African have been rejected multiple times and does not want to let similar cases happen again. This shows the prejudicial minds of people. Some reasons which may cause such thinking may be that they feel that Africans are dirty and messy and do not want them to dirty the place, or that they are uneducated and undisciplined, and thus would be hard to control. I feel that these are just biases without any basis, and it is terrible to see that people still cling on to their biases stubbornly.
Then, from the seventh to ninth line, I can see that the landlady was rich. People who are rich are often seen as educated and sophisticated. However, this is not this case as we can see from the next line. The landlady asked how dark the African was, asking “Are you light or very dark?”. This shows how badly the landlady wanted to categorize the African. This is confirmed even further when we see that the poet said “Button B, Button A”. It shows a form of categorizing. The desperate attempt to categorize somebody you cannot understand
The 13th to 14th line shows that the African was very angry from the emphasis of the colour red in “Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered Omnibus”. This shows, in my opinion, a change in the persona. At the front, he felt ashamed that he was an African. Now, he feels that there is nothing wrong and he feels insulted by the landlady. Although they are not exactly contrasting, there is still a gradual change, I feel.
Then, later in line 17, the poet describes the landlady as “considerate” by repeating the question again in line 18. This is ironic as repeating the question was obviously rude but the poet described the landlady as “considerate” instead. Also, when the poet mentioned “Revelation came”, he was referring to him knowing the fact that the landlady was racist. This, I believe, is also an irony as I am of the opinion that the African knew the landlady was racist from the start, and did not only wait until then. Moreover, “revelation” is not very suitable in this context, and I guess the poet used it for ironic purposes.
Later, in line 22, we can see that the African is educated as he knows how to use the word “sepia”. He uses the expression “West African sepia” as he knows that the landlady is uneducated based on the fact that she asked the question of his skin colour in an unsophisticated way. This is ironic as it is the landlady who looks down on the African because of his skin colour but now, the truth is that the African is insulting her with his knowledge.
The African continues to insult the landlady by describing his face as “brunette”, the palm of his hand and the soles of his feet as “peroxide blond” and his bottom as “raven black”.
In addition, I noticed that all dialogues of the landlady is capitalized, giving her an image which paints her as simplistic and ignorant.
Why I chose Telephone Conversation
When I read the poem, I sympathized with the African in the poem and felt a sense of anger towards the landlady. I felt that discrimination was not supposed to exist in democratic societies, yet it still exists. In my opinion, have prejudice against people is already bad enough, and acting the prejudice out by discriminating against blacks is intolerable. However, despite my anger, I was glad for the educated African as he managed to insult the landlady without the landlady even knowing, which is like the good triumphing over the bad.
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