Telephone Conversation
by Roald Ivask
1. Audience & purpose: author meant to write this poem for people living in England in 1960s. Later on it became globally famous and then the meaning shifted from only UK towards everyone who has experienced racism in some way. Purpose is to depict the absurdity of racism.
2. Content & theme: it narrates a conversation between a black man and a white woman over the telephone. The black man is trying to rent a room in white woman's property. The woman approaches the man in a cynical and caustic manner. Theme is racism.
3. Tone and mood: the tone is elegantly passive agressive and it creates a cynical yet condescending mood.
4. Stylistic devices: it uses an archetype to describe the white woman. The poem is filled with short 2 or 3 word epithets. Woman's remarques are written in bold capital letters which expresses her loud conviction against the other race.
