Please Hold

Question 1

Patterns - Please Hold - TIME LOOP

Answer 1

“This is the future,(repeated at end) my wife says. We are already there, and it’s the same as the present.”
“We are already there and it’s the same as the present.”

• cycical structure -repition of phrase symbolising how times isn’t progressing but only repeating - mirrors endless waiting loop speaker is trapped in.
• future isn’t different from present cause technology has trapped society in stagnation

Question 2

Patterns - please hold - music torture

Answer 2

Music is a form of psychological torture as :
-Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is light, elegant, and refined, yet here it becomes mocking and oppressive.

• it’s not I at background noise but a weapon of control as :
  It’s calmness contrasts speakers frustration making him feel insignificant & absurd
• “fucking - he reaches breaking point - once meaningful art, is now also tool of control

Question 3

Patterns - please hold - robot - false god

Answer 3

The Robot as a False god /
Worship of Automation

. “Wonderful, says the robot.”
• “Great, says the robot.”
• “Please do what you’re told.”

The robot speaks in short, absolute affirmations, almost like religious decrees.
the speaker is forced to obey an automated deity that controls his fate.

The robot’s repetitive phrases-
“Wonderful,” “Great,” “Please hold”-become a kind of chant or mantra, reinforcing how humans are expected to accept their submission without question.

Question 4

Please hold - patterns - death as final hold

Answer 4

• “Please hold. Please grow old. Please grow cold.”
• “Please do what you’re told. Grow old.
Grow cold.”

• The phrase shifts from waiting on hold
  -to aging and lastly dying.

-The system isn’t just wasting time but it’s stealing life itself.

• Exaggerates the severity of the waiting time to be as though By the time the call is answered, it will be too late.

-The final line implies that people’s only role in this future is to obey, age, and die quietly.

Question 5

Structure & form - please hold

Answer 5

-Dramatic monologue form, free verse structure (no rhyme scheme mirrors disjointed experience)

-with uneven / broken lines - mirror speakers growing anger / helplessness
- conversational tone

-lack of breaks in stanza reflects the monotony and inescapability of the automated system - traps speaker in an endless loop

Question 6

Pease hold - shift in structure

Answer 6

• the shift in structure is when repetition of “Please hold” intensifies , becomes mantra-like & rhythmic and breaks away from conversational structure in the first part of poem.

-The poem moves from a direct narrative to a more repetitive structure, enhancing the feeling of entrapment - like in a loop and absurdity.

-. The speaker’s relationship with time and the future also shifts as the robotic responses become more meaningless, and the narrator starts to echo the commands he is receiving.

By the end of the poem, the structure is fragmented and cyclical - symbolising the overwhelming and monotonous nature of modern technological systems.

• highlights the alienation with the technological and bureaucratic systems that are supposed to serve us.