10. the telephone call

• they asked me 'are you sitting down' / universal lotteries, you've won the top prize

  dental 't' alliteration:

  reflect the eerie + unnatural, anonymised voice

  voice is off-puttingly polished + perfected

  haughtily superior
• you've won the ultra-super global special

  corporate language/patter is hyperbolic

  adds to the surreal + exaggerated nature of the announcement

  a reflection of the hyperbolic nature of corporate language
• more than a million — not that it makes a lot of difference once you're a millionaire

  caller thinks money defines social standing

  millionaires are of a different caste to the non-wealthy
• come on, now, tell us, how does it feel... 'go on'

  imperatives:

  a devious, sinister, almost vampiric persuasion

  caller draws sustenance in goading the speaker's flummoxed state
• i feel the top of my head has 'floated off... like a flying saucer'

  simile conveys the surreal sensation of having head removed from body

  flying saucers are normally revealed to be hoaxes
• my 'throat's gone dry' 'nose is tingling' / going to 'sneeze — or cry'

  emotive language:

  evidence of speaker's biological, human reactions which caller does not possess:

  caller: robotic + automated

  speaker: physical, tactile, lively

  this is testament to the withering of corporate culture
• relax, now, have a little cry

  tone isn't calming, conciliatory, consoling, it is patronising and emotionless

  exhorts speaker to provide a response even as they experience physical manifestations of their emotions

  evnices caller is withered
• not to worry about a ticket / we're universal. we operate a retrospective chances module

  universal — lexical choice

  caller is omnipresent

  retrospective — syntactical choice

  caller has an omniscient awareness of the speaker's entire life

  perhaps predetermination personified is calling speaker:

  similar to that of a death-myth, the caller is the arbiter of fate who controls who gets what lot both in life and after
• something you'll remember
• something you'll remember/ that's your prize

  effect is both sincere and crushing:

  
  

  sincere

  • experiences are more valuable than material
  • caller is not just a huckster, but making a profound moral point, creating a didactic fable of the importance of valuing experiences, not materialism, as true wealth

  crushing

  • speaker expected the £1m
  • undercuts the mirage of newfound wealth
• and the line went dead

  lexical choice:

  moment of anticlimax + terminality

  reinforces the poem's undercurrent: the finitude of life and the possibility of some arbiter passing judgement on our souls' journeys

  proves poem is didactic
• how is the stanza structure relevant

  structure: arranged into blocky, regular octets

  • caller being arbiter of fate: caller just delivers a scripted sales patter without emotion
  • they had prepared the speech before; perhaps just like they prepared the predestination of the speaker in the 'retrospective chances module
• how is the metre and rhyme of the poem relevant

  none

  makes it dialogic/conversational

  the speech tags + quotation marks do this as well, e.g 'they said', 'Are you sitting down
• how is the lineation of the poem relevant

  lots of enjambment, e.g 'isn't every day you hear / you're going to get a million pounds'

  disorientates the phone call for the speaker

  makes the experience out of body, unnatural
• example intro quote

  'ultra-super global special' / revolving 'like a flying saucer
• poem summary

  poem invites us to view life from the angle of experiences. from this vantage point, we are all winners

  
  

  poem's form is dialogic — conversational: speech tags + quotation marks

  
  

  poem is an expose of the creep of corporate language in our culture: 'ultra-super global special'

  
  

  caller holds a curious manipulative power over the speaker: he knows what the punchline will be