Telephone Conversation (Poem)

Today in class, we went through the poem "Telephone Conversation" by Wole Soyinka.

Firstly, I would like to applaud the poem for having a very unique and contemporary type of presentation and structure. I am very intrigued by how a telephone conversation is fused into the theme of Racism.

The use of a telephone conversation makes it very easy to visualize the emotion and atmosphere. The poem is basically about a Black man trying to rent a room. Hence, the black man has to contact the landlady. Through the poem, it is easily revealed that the landlady is a racist, but tries much to hide it. The poem makes use of a telephone conversation. It uses how people usually engage in a conversation. In this poem, it is revealed that the landlady was taken aback when she knew about the man's race. This is revealed as it is written that the landlady seemed to "put on lipstick" before she talked. This reveals that what was said after she new about his race was rather artificial. Towards the end of the poem the landlady starts to be more aggressive and rude. Hence, the speaker himself could not tolerate anymore and did not care for the landlady's feelings.

This is a very unique and successful poem on racism.