Please Hold

Question 1

Cyclical structure

Answer 1

• ironically contrasts w the motif of progress in the sentiment that he will never get what he wants from the robot
• creates a sense of endless turmoil and lack of productivity from the tecnhnooogical world

Question 2

Structure

Answer 2

• very long monolithic stanza represents the endless experience and the monotony he feels
• helps empathise with the lack of real progress he is making
• one short stanza at the end is separate from the rest of the poem as an accumulation of the frustration, implying that human life IS futile and that it will release us from the endless technology
• free verse mirrros the chaos and genuine frustration, contrasts the sharp technological language

Question 3

Caesursa/end stops

Answer 3

• show that technology is temperamental and deceptively not free flowing
• makes the poem hard to read and implies that a solution will maybe never be found

Question 4

This is the future.. it’s the same as the present

Answer 4

• antithesis of future and present being depicted as synonymous implies a sense of monotony and disappointment
• foreshadows the dullness of the poem as. A whole and the lack of real progress the speaker experiences
• paradoxical blur which creates a senes of inevitability and entrapment

Question 5

I have a wonderful telephone number and a great account number

Answer 5

• satire used to highlight his underlying anger
• the depersonalising nature of him being diminished to linear code implies modern tech to be unnatural to human kind and thus disappointing and negative

Question 6

Refrain of this is the future

Answer 6

• folllwing the phrase ‘m’y wife says’ is almost oxymoronic as something symbolic of human affection such as the lexis ‘’wife’ is juxtaposed by the monotonous repetition of this is the future
• implies humans are losing any identification due to being submerged with robots
• humans are passive participants in a future which through the repetition/refrain is shown to be robotic
• however, the fact that these basic phrases are being contantly repeated show a lack of real progress, implying technology is not really beneficial in progress

Question 7

Or you can say..
I scream.. and am cut off

Answer 7

• the robots have begun to control humans into a binary narrative
• when he screams a lexis connoting strsss and rawly human feelings the robot silences his narrative, implying humans no longer have layaway to express themselves

Question 8

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Please hold.
Eine fucking Kleine Nachtmusik.

Answer 8

• répétition is used to underscore the real time monotony and frustration he must be experiencing
• shows how any sound, even a testiemnt of human composition and skill have become warped and annoying in a robot world
• the addition of an expletive in the final line marks his crippling anger, giving insight to his raw unfilted thoughts

Question 9

The only way to meet needs is by looting

Answer 9

• hyperbole reflects the hopeless and panicked situation
• may suggest that society will inevitably break down due to human advancement cutting off any basic and traditional means of support
• lexis ‘looting’ implies dystopian violence suggesting that the future is headed to chaos

Question 10

Final stanza

Answer 10

• anaphoric repetition of please is ironic as the robot is commanding, shows how the future is disingenuous and will end is chaos
• the caesura and the anaphore together mimic the sound of a system malfunction or a complete breakdown of sanity
• human rites of passage such as death are seen as the only release