Please Hold

Question 1

Who is the speaker in Please Hold?

Answer 1

Older man venting frustration

Question 2

What are the key events of Please Hold?

Answer 2

Man is speaking to ‘robot’ on the telephone

Wife seems to be more in touch with society around her as she is more in touch with the present and future

Question 3

Quote(s) for repetition in Please Hold

Answer 3

“please hold”
- sense of monotony
- comical
- ironic: emphasising the contrast of the narrator vs robot
- false politeness as the robot can’t understand emotions
- sounds like static or interference on a telephone line
- plosives ensures negative and emotional feelings of the poem still continue

“this is the future”
- informative but can be interpreted as becoming increasingly negative
- sense of wariness and anxiousness
- sarcastic and critical of the new phone systems
- oxymoron: clear indication of the potential sinister nature of increasing automation and reduced human interaction
- idea of appearance and reality in the use of “guise” as this indicates a deliberately misleading presentation

“yes” “ no”
- highlights mundane nature of phone call

Question 4

How is juxtaposition shown in Please Hold?

Answer 4

Contrast between emotions and lack of emotions

Question 5

Quote(s) for internal rhyme in Please Hold

Answer 5

“old” “cold”
- nothing has changed from the beginning
- sense of frustration has reached its peak by the end
- oblique ending: dystopian image of the future
- illusion to death

Question 6

What is the form of Please Hold?

Answer 6

1st person

Question 7

Themes of Please Hold

Answer 7

Society and culture
- issue of technology and how this is having an impact, particularly in regards to human interactions with other people
- poses the question through the frustration of the telephone line whether robots and automation are actually helpful to society what

Language and truth
- breakdown of language and communication, shows an interesting perspective on the impact of technology
- used to help express the emotion that the narrator is feeling, including satirical phrases

Power
- transfers between the narrator, the robot and to a certain extent the narrator’s wife
- narrator is powerless to stop the march of technology and to actually speak to another person