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LAURA ORTEGA
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In the poem “Please Hold”,
Ciaran O’Driscoll presents the future in a monotonous and pessimistic way
similarly in “An Easy Passage”, Julia
Copus conveys the theme of future by describing the journey from childhood to
adulthood she does this in a confused and flowy way. O’Driscoll describes the monotony of daily tasks in modern life in
his poem he does this by using the example of trying to phone a company’s
customer service department shown in, “I’m talking to a robot in a phone” this
could be an extended metaphor on how society talks through technology to
technology and how slowly everything is being dehumanised. The speaker is only
to be hold and made to speak to an automatic recording. The use of “robot”,
gives an effect of how cold and emotionless society has become. Copus describes
the journey from childhood and adulthood as something scary and pessimistic
this is implied in, “trembling” and “petrified beach”. The verb petrified
implies adulthood and how the girl might be scared to face it reminds the
reader of Medusa which if one looked at her they would be petrified this could
be an extended metaphor of how If a child looks to deep into adulthood their
creativity and innocence petrifies and their character solidifies. Petrified
could also mean how when you’re an adult women reach the menopause this could
be implied because “beaches” connote to natural and woman-like imagery which
would then pair up with the use of “drop” which is symbolic for the future
menstruation the young girl is going to have. Copus decides to use a confused
tone which is implied in how she uses “trembling” and then “sunlight” which are
negative and positive connotations to adulthood this is to emphasise how the
girl is feeling and could be an extended metaphor for hormonal changes through
puberty.
O’Driscoll uses form to emphasise the contrast between the emotionless voice of
the robot with the over boarding emotion of humans. Copus uses form to illustrate how life is continuous and to
represent a positive approach from the young girl towards the future. In
“Please Hold” this is conveyed by the mental state of the poetic voice and the
chaos seen in the unusual methods of punctuation. This is represented through a
mainly single, continuous stanza, which reflects the theme of monotony and the
feeling of lengthened time which runs through the poem. The poet doesn’t
frequently use enjambment to emphasise how time is not passing by and instead
he uses punctuation such as full stops, commas and exclamation marks at the end
of most of the lines as well as numerous caesurae. The pauses used lengthen the
poem, highlighting the poet’s boredom, and the sense of time passing slowly. The
poet uses, “And” in a repeatedly way to create a conversational rather than
formal effect. The free verse adapts more easily to variation helping to create
contrast with the emotionless voice of the robot and the inner monologue of the
speaker. An example for this would be “I scream Agent! And am cut off” to “This
is the future. Please Hold” this illustrates how uncontrollable and passionate
human language is compared to a robotic language at the end. The poet intention
was to represent people’s everyday thoughts and portray speech as it really is
and not neatly tucked into grammatical sentences although this then changes to
a more rigid and monotonous voice. The poem ends with a shorter, three line
stanza made of almost identical phrases emphasising how the poet sees the cycle
of daily tasks and frustrations as being perpetual and perhaps inescapable. The spontaneous and creative language and use
of punctuation which represented the emotion of a human in the poem is now
converted into an artificial human as an experience of excessive “customer
service”, technology and its coldness. The man is beaten by society as it ends
in a robotic lexis conveying how technology killed creativity and the warmth
between human services rather than automatic one. Copus uses form to express
the passing of time and shows a hopeful vision from the young girl. The poem is
build-up of one continual stanza this gives the poem a flow feel suggesting
freedom. Freedom explored in the choices as an adult and freedom in the
broadness of future opportunities. Opportunities are illustrated in the poem
with the imagery of an “open window” which shows the broadness of adulthood but
also means one has to take responsibilities and has to decide what window to go
through this is challenged with the young girl’s uncertainty of growing up. The
continual stanza connotes to how life is continuous and conveys how the girl
sees her life ahead of her. The tone of
the poem is conversational with long and enjambed lines which provide a
naturally easy flow that could convey the flow of the menstruation in a woman
and aging through time as there was water imagery in the poem although it also
represents the passing of time. The use of tenses also informs the poem’s
structure as it’s written in the present tense for example , “rest lightly on
her thighs “ but the reference to astrology and the presence of the older
secretary , as well as the mention of the girl’s mother are reminders of what
the future might hold in store. This could be a critique to society on how it
was believed that a woman could only turn into a mother or a minor job
qualification when they grew older.
O’Driscoll uses repetition to emphasise the monotony of daily tasks in modern
life. The repetition of “Please Hold” and “Yes.No.Menu.” helps to establish the
slow rhythm of the poem making the reader have the sensation that they are waiting
for something to occur such as the poem’s theme which is demonstrated in
“Please Hold. Please grow old.”, this phrase has great importance in the poem because
it holds together the idea that through life people are constantly waiting and
time passes and eventually the future they have been waiting for has passed
already and they have grown old. The poet wants to explain that one is waiting
for a long period of time on the telephone before they get through an actual
person, this is an extended metaphor to how society is brainwashed and is
turning to be automatic and emotionless. This is implied in the line: “Eine
Kleine Nachtmusik” which is a piece well known for somewhat repetitive as is
the usual ´holding music` on telephone systems worldwide. The use of German is
intentional as Germany has social connotations of being a well-known
technological country and it also resembles to coldness and repression. The
repression of German history could represent how the future technology is going
to again oppress people’s creativity and ideas and set them all into one
specific ideal. The poet is shown to become increasingly frustrated as the poem
progresses this contrasts starkly with the robotic nature of everything else
around him. Copus uses repetition of
“for now” as a symbol to hold on to childhood and to represent the uncertainty
and challenge of growing up. The poet uses contrasts such as “up” and “down” and
“indoors” and “outdoors” to create a sense of things being on a cusp this is
emphasised with the “sun” and the “shade” in the last part of the poem which
symbolised the freedom of the young girl with the adult of the work. In the end
“sunlight briefly like the flash of armaments before dropping gracefully
between shade of the house” is very representative to the poem as the sunlight
represents her youth and how this is happening fast and will last short this
will end before “dropping” which metaphorically links to the menstruation and
female changes through childhood and then “the shade of the house” represents
the adulthood which is now the dull and grey aspect of life. The thought of the
future being grey is was illustrated in the juxtaposition of, “flush-faced
secretary” this suggests what is ahead for the girl and this hints the dullness
of adult life. The use of “armaments “ could imply how as she grows up her
fight is over as she is aging and also her enthusiasm towards life could fade
away. This military imagery could suggest that girls are destructive or harmful
perhaps to themselves because they are so naïve or that they are unpredictable
and “electric”.
In the poem “Please Hold”, O’Driscoll uses four distinct voices to
create an image of chaos whilst in “Easy Passage”, Copus uses one single
narrative voice to create a scenery where the reader is observing the young
girl. O’Driscoll uses the voices of the poet, his wife, the `robot´ and the
´translator`( his internal monologue). The voices speak in quick succession
without the use of speech marks creating an image of chaos, in which each of
the voices is talking over each other. This is emphasised in the final stanza,
“Please hold. Please grow old. Please grow cold.” the use of short, rhyming
phrases gives the impression that, if read aloud, the separate fragments of
each line would be spoken repeatedly and one after the other. The language used
seems to illustrate the transition from life into death, implying the sense of
monotony the poet is feeling. In addition, the frequent use of caesurae, with a
full stop at the end of each phrase, emphasises the robotic nature of the
voices. Copus explores the contrast between an innocent and naïve, young girl
and an older woman who works as a secretary. The poem’s central concern is the
exploration of the fleeting period between girlhood and womanhood. The poem has
a narrative voice which remains unobtrusive for most of the poem, her point of
view is important. The scene is viewed through her eyes as if through a movie
camera, zooming in for close-ups on different characters and allowing us brief
glimpses into their lives. Copus intention was to emphasise how quickly time is
passing and how society should be making the most of each of those instances.
In conclusion the poem “An
Easy Passage”, makes use of contrasting language to describe the girl’s physical
situation to symbolise the stage of her life which is halfway through. The
imagery used helps to bind the poem together .The balance is mildly disrupted
by the one time the narrator makes use of a rhetorical question which is, “What
can she know of the world admits us less and less the more we grow?” the
intention of this is to make a critique to how as people grow older and they
acknowledge more ideologies and turn to more complex people and learn to be
their true selves then society criticises them for what they have become and
they are never fully understood. The poem represents the path from childhood to
adulthood. On the other hand “Please
Hold” intention is to warn about how technology based society is letting no
room for creativity and how the coldness and artificial relationship of
technology would turn people into brainwashed and identical individuals. The
emotion of humans is dehumanised by technology. The poem also explores how
people should follow their instincts and gut and stop waiting for ever for
something to happen and rather make it happen yourself.
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