A Simplified Analysis of The Telephone Call by Fleur Adcock

“The Telephone Call" composed by Fleur Adcock is a criticism of the lottery and the hope it creates in the stakers.

It reflects how the people that are involved in it feel and at the end many hopes are dashed.

Adcock presents this with a telephone call from a lottery company to the speaker in the poem who has not bought a lottery ticket recently.

The callers explain the modus operandi of their company lottery and the speaker is said to have won the "top prize." He is somehow convinced, but still skeptical to some extent.

He is expecting to be issued a check or paid in cash. Eventually, None comes his way; he gets "experience" as his prize.

The comprehensive stanza by stanza analysis of this poem and others in the WAEC 2026–2030 syllabus are in this book titled “Simplified Poetry” by Folahan Oyelekan.

African Poetry

These are the Poems:
Once Upon a Time by Gabriel Okara
New Tongue by Elizabeth L.A Kamara
Night by Wole Soyinka
Not My Business by Niyi Osundare
Hearty Garlands by S.O.H Afriyie-Vidza
The Breast of the Sea by Syl Cheney-Coker

Non-African Poetry

She Walks in Beauty by Lord Byron
The Nun's Priest's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer
Digging by Seamus Heany
Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
The Telephone Call by Fleur Adcock
The Stone by Wilfrid Wilson Gibson

The themes and the poetic devices are also identified and explicitly explained.

The difficult words are listed out and the poetic meanings are provided according to the usage in the poem.

You can also follow the author on his YouTube channel for more discourse on the recommended texts and the selected poems in the WAEC Syllabus.

To have access to free Literature-in-English materials click here.