'The Telephone Call' by Fleur Adcock (detailed analysis)

Detailed analysis by Claire’s Notes of ‘The Telephone Call’ by Fleur Adcock
Cambridge iGCSE: Songs of Ourselves Volume 4

"The Telephone Call" by Fleur Adcock is a fictional narrative centered on a hoax phone call. Adcock employs the lottery as a metaphor for life, delving into themes of randomness, expectation, and disappointment. The narrative suggests that people often navigate life in a detached manner, akin to sleepwalking, where they are emotionally and physically disconnected from the present moment. This metaphor underscores a deeper exploration of human existence, highlighting how individuals may overlook their own emotions and bodily sensations, thus missing out on the profound interactions that shape their experiences.

The Telephone Call by Fleur Adcock

They asked me ‘Are you sitting down?
Right? This is Universal Lotteries’,
they said. ‘You’ve won the top prize,
the Ultra-super Global Special.
What would you do with a million pounds?
Or, actually, with more than a million –
not that it makes a lot of difference
once you’re a millionaire.’ And they laughed.

‘Are you OK?’ they asked – ‘Still there?
Come on, now, tell us, how does it feel?’
I said ‘I just…I can’t believe it!’
They said ‘That’s what they all say.
What else? Go on, tell us about it.’
I said ‘I feel the top of my head
has floated off, out through the window,
revolving like a flying saucer.’

‘That’s unusual’ they said. ‘Go on.’
I said ‘I’m finding it hard to talk.
My throat’s gone dry, my nose is tingling.
I think I’m going to sneeze – or cry.’
‘That’s right’ they said, ‘don’t be ashamed
of giving way to your emotions.
It isn’t every day you hear
you’re going to get a million pounds.

Relax, now, have a little cry;
we’ll give you a moment…’ ‘Hang on!’ I said.
‘I haven’t bought a lottery ticket
for years and years. And what did you say
the company’s called?’ They laughed again.
‘Not to worry about a ticket.
We’re Universal. We operate
A retrospective Chances Module.

Nearly everyone’s bought a ticket
in some lottery or another,
once at least. We buy up the files,
feed the names into our computer,
and see who the lucky person is.’
‘Well, that’s incredible’ I said.
‘It’s marvelous. I still can’t quite…
I’ll believe it when I see the cheque.’

‘Oh,’ they said, ‘there’s no cheque.’
‘But the money?’ ‘We don’t deal in money.
Experiences are what we deal in.
You’ve had a great experience, right?
Exciting? Something you’ll remember?
That’s your prize. So congratulations
from all of us at Universal.
Have a nice day!’ And the line went dead.

My poetry videos all have the same structure: I start by putting the poem into its historical and biographical context where this enhances its understanding and give a short summary of the poem itself; I then look at the poem in its entirety, picking out structural features, such as metre (rhythm), any rhyming and patterns in language which the poet uses; I finish by going through the poem on a line-by-line basis, giving definitions of words and offering an interpretation of the poet’s words with justification. Most of the terminology I use (in green) is provided with a definition below, so even if you haven’t come across it before, you should still be able to understand the points I am making.

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Please note that any literature analysis is highly subjective and may disagree with analysis by another person. All interpretations are valid if they can be justified by reference to the text. This interpretation is my own: it is not exhaustive and there are alternatives!

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