Analysis Of Telephone Conversation By Wole Soyinka

Wole Soyinka’s “Telephone Conversation” is an articulate exchange of words between a dark West African man and his British landlady that unrelenting verges on
the question of apartheid. The poet makes use of the most clear means to voice his views, through a telephone conversation, where there is immediate and natural exchange. It shows a one-to-one discussion between the two. The talk between a dark and a white individual at once shows universal overtones.

 

At the outset, the poet says that the price seemed reasonable and the location ‘indifferent’. Note that as a word, even though the word “indifferent” denotes being ‘unbiased’, it is a word with a somewhat negative words. However, as we come across the Landlady’s biased nature; the word ‘indifferent’ gains positive overtones, as it is better than
being impartial. The lady swears that she lived ‘off premises’.

Nevertheless, the very aspect of his colour is a conundrum to her, far from her promise to remain indifferent.
Nothing remains for the poet, he says, but confession. It gives a picture of him sitting in a confessional, when he hasn’t committed any crime….his crime is his colour, race and background, his feeling can't change who he is. He tells the lady that he disdain a futile journey. Though his words connote more than he literally symbolizes. The poet seems to be weak of his life perturbed by racist prejudices. As he mentions his race, the lady is trapped with
silence, but a silence that speaks
volumes. A telephone is an instrument that primarily transmits voices, here it becomes a medium for silence also. The civilized world, has these silent powerful issues that need to be voiced.
Here, the silence echoes. It is a silence that is the consequence of her developed upbringing. However, her prejudices go beyond her to primitivism,
living in the fictitious narrow-mindedness of caste and colour. When the voice finally came, it was ‘lip-stick coated’,well made-up and diplomatic
to suit an affected atmosphere. The
inevitable question finally comes cross:”ARE YOU DARK? OR VERY LIGHT?”

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The poet asks this question to clarify his thoughts. The question has two alternatives before him: dark or light; The truth or lies.
The first option would obviously shut off all doors to him. He then realizes that denying is not the solution, and decides to face the situation. The words: “Stench /Of rancid breath of public hide-and-speak” signify the far nature of the questions rather than the
atmosphere.

The colour ‘red’ in “Red booth. Red pillar box. Red double-tiered” forebode caution. The questions were too naked to be true. The speaker at last brings himself to
believe them. His response is very short: “You mean–like plain or milk chocolate?”. Her disinterested
approval of the question was like that of a clinical doctor made immune to human emotions through experience. Human pain and misery its own saturation point; after a certain point people tend to joke at their own agony. As the saying goes: Be a God, and laugh at Yourself. The speaker therefore begins enjoying the situation and confuses the lady on the other side. He asserts: “West African sepia”, to further confuse her.

 

Silence for spectroscopic Flight of fancy, till truthfulness clanged
her accent Hard on the mouthpiece.
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?”

The last lines verge on vulgarity, but simply out of outrage. The mixed feelings, the random and broken sentences, the lack of coherence of speech, the question-answer mode are all typical of a
telephone conversation that beats
more than it sounds.

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Moses Chibueze Opara aka Mr. Humility
(A contemporary poet and poetry analyst)

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Deep Analysis Of Post Mortem By Wole Soyinka

Post Mortem was written by the Nigerian world class poet, Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Denotation
The poem began with the poem speaker, preferring dead plants to dead human beings because human beings become stiff and cold "in the cold hand of death..."(line 4) and everything in them become opposite: their talking become "cotton filled", their manhood or man-pike become small like larva of an insect.

The poem speaker in the third and forth stanza revealed the futility of post mortem where the dead man's head was hollowed and his brain was scaled when death had already done a damage no medical practitioners could recover.

The poem ended with the encourag
ement to love science, scientists, practice of post mortem, old age, etc.

Connotation
Now, let's look at the themes in the poem. (1) Theme of Untimely Death (2) Theme of Death's Supremacy Over Science And Human Being (3) Theme Of The Importance Of Dying Old.

(1) Untimely Death. The poem reminds the readers of the fact that untimely deaths are the major causes of post mortem. Such deaths hold mysteries that prompt scientists into action of searching the cause of such death; in a very rare occasion, the death of a very old person post mortemed.
(2) Death's Supremacy Over Science And Human Beings.
"in the cold hand of death...
his month was cotton filled, his man-pike
shrunk to a subsoil grub" (stanza 2)
The stanza explained how powerful and dominating death is. The following two stanzas backed the fact that science and scientific experiments are under the feet of death.
(3) The Importance Of Dying Old. Although, the last stanza of the poem look ambiguous, out of the ambiguity came the importance of dying old where "grey" symbolized old age, "one grey sleep and form" sydmbolized lying in coffin while old, "grey slabs" symbolized the undertaker grey- color Cadillac. The poem speaker stressed the importance of old age by saying: "let us love all things of grey;"(line 13).

Language, Style, Poetic Devices
The poem is a five stanza poem with three lines each stanza.
The language of the poem is simple.
The use medical title and instrument gave the poem a medical setting.
Alliteration in line 1 "functions to freezing", in line 2 "beer; cold bier", in line 11 "head hollowed".
Imageries "stocking beer", "harnessed_ glory be!_", "trick to prove fore-knowledge after death", "grey sleep and form".
Euphemism in line 5 "his man-pike", "how not to die" in line 12, "subsoil grub" in line 6.
Symbolism "stocking beer" symbolized dead beings, "cold bier" symbolized the embalmed, "grey images" symbolised victims of post mortem.
Allusion in line 2. Bier alluded to William Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 4, scene 5: "They bore him bare-face on the bier".

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
(the Leo with wings in the tempest)

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The Tether Will Suffer The Wear And The Tear

NOTE: "The tether will suffer the wear and the tear" is a handsome funny poem written by Akoli Penoukou; a Togolese teacher, poet and businessman born 1953. Akoli has been a motivator and mentor to many adults and youths (both home and abroad) with writings and way of life_ not excluding his alluring smile. It wouldn't be a hyperbole to say Akoli Penoukou is currently the Wole Soyinka of Togo because he's an icon.

POEM:
Tether which inhibited us in barter
Tether which revoked our God-image
Tether which banished our patriotic rights
Tether which hindered our exodus
Tether of delusion

 
Tether of genocide
tightening noose of a tether
suffocating noose of a tether
neck-breaking noose of a tether
life-quenching noose of a tether
like a hangman’s
tether-noose which took away our voice
tether tightened by mammoth hands
mammoth hands powered by hearts of stone
hearts of stone activated by robot minds
but each time comes the wear and the tear
the wear
and
the tear

 
the tether-noose which limits and suffocates us
will again suffer the wear and the tear
the knots will slacken like a landslide
the noose will become a toothless tiger
the noose of the enemy will inevitably wear out
and we can continue our march towards light.

Rewritten March 10, 2001

The poem is from poetropical poetry website

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