Please Hold By Ciaran O'Driscoll Flashcards
(9 cards)
Title: Please Hold
Monosyllabic dictation
Automated voice
Robotic - Lack of emotion
Imperative mood with commanding authority
Satirical poem
Structure
Constant of the rush of efficiency and productivity in a short amount of time
Irony - One verse with no time to actually ‘hold’ as the title requests
Tercet - Three line stanza
Use of listing creates an overstimulated environment
Context
The poet took inspiration from T.S Eliot “Hurry up please, it’s time” from ‘The Waste Land’
Henry Ford is foundational to modern industrialisation production
The poem references attributes from Henry Ford’s theory of time and motion - Work processes analysed to eliminate wasted motion and time improving productivity
Agenda
Critique of the fast paced nature of life due to reliance on technology
Theme
Society and culture
Power
Technology
Section 1:
“This is the future, my wife says.”
“same as the present. Your future, here, she says.”
“robot is giving me countless options, none of which answers my needs.”
“Wonderful” , “Great” , “wonderful telephone number” , “great account”
“I can find nothing to meet my needs”
“(which is really the robot’s account)”
“I shout”
This line is a refrain repeated through out the poem and is an example of heteroglossia (two or more expressed viewpoints in a text or artistic work), where the husband believes technological advancements are an annoyance but the wife is accepting of it.
Paradox - The poem is written in the present while referencing a future that seems to already be here despite the speakers rejection.
Suggested feeling of entrapment
Use of punctuation . represents the speakers frustrations as technology is meant to be efficient yet in the poem it is portrayed as an annoyance
“countless options” highlight human greed and superficiality in a pursuit of materialistic desire
Hyperbolic language and adjectives used by the robot leaves the speaker feeling more angered as the robot
Sarcasm reflecting depth of frustration
Repetition of the speakers dissatisfaction
Parenthesis makes the reader feel out of control and powerless
Verb expresses the speakers patience leaving and presents auditory imagery
Section 2:
“Wonderful, says the robot.”
“And my wife says, This is the future.”
“talk to someone real, who is just as robotic.”
“I scream Agent! and am cut off”
Repetition of auditory imagery
Repetition highlights the wife as a parallel of the robot sharing similar behaviouristics
The wife is programmed to accept the robot which could link to gender roles where women are obedient and submissive to change of life
Satirising lack of room for creativity due to the robotic influence upon humanity as if they have been brainwashed from all reality
Exclamatory nature of the sentence highlights human conversation reduced with disassociation to reality
Increasing rage
Section 3:
“my wife says, This is the future.”
“he is giving me no options”
“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik”
“Eline fucking Kleine Nachtmusik”
“Your call is important to us”
Repetition
Contrasts with the beginning of the poem where the robot provided “countless options”
Refrain of anaphora - Mozart’s music usually played when someone is put on hold on a phone call
Historic music used as a mundane thing - Source of irritation
Taboo language expressing anger - Colloquial aspect
Irony as robots aren’t inclined to feel and type of emotional response to someone’s suffering, hanger, happiness, or impatience. They don’t feel any importance towards any matter
Stanza 2:
“Please hold. Please grow old. Please grow cold. Please do what you’re told. Grow old. Grow cold.”
“This is the future. Please hold.”
Imperative and linguistic specialities within this tercet (Punctuation, repetition, rhyme)
Repetition shows repeated cycle of life
Last line of the poem acts as a message from the speaker to the readers telling them to slow down in life which differs from the meaning of the title where the speaker is on call
