The Telephone Call
Fleur Adcock · Non-African poetry · WAEC set text 2026–2030
What it is doing
A speaker receives a call that sounds like a prize, a fortune, something too good. The poem plays the hope against the suspicion that the voice on the line is not what it claims.
What to listen for
Dramatic monologue / reported speech; irony; the ordinary object (a telephone) carrying a life-changing lie or a life-changing truth.
In the exam
Tone — hopeful, then wary. Write about how Adcock makes the reader share the speaker’s uncertainty.