"The Telephone Call" appears in Fleur Adcock's collection The Incident Book (1986). It describes a mysterious phone call from "Universal Lotteries," an organization claiming that the speaker has won their grand prize. When the callers finally admit the speaker hasn't won any money, they claim the true "prize" was the memorable "experience" of the call itself. The poem can be read as a miniature fable about ordinary disappointment, suggesting that human experience always falls short of our wildest hopes. Metaphorically speaking, we never win the lottery; at best, we get to entertain the fantasy for a while.

• Read the full text of “The Telephone Call”

• “The Telephone Call” Summary

• “The Telephone Call” Themes

  • 

    Hope and Disappointment

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-48
  • 

    Illusions vs. Experience

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 9-48

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Telephone Call”

  • Lines 1-4

    They asked me ...
    ... Ultra-Super Global Special.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 5-8

    What would you ...
    ... millionaire." And they laughed.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 9-13

    "Are you OK?" ...
    ... us about it."

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-20

    I said "I ...
    ... to sneeze—or cry."

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 21-26

    "That's right" they ...
    ... you a moment…"

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 26-32

    "Hang on!" I said. ...
    ... retrospective Chances Module.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 33-37

    Nearly everyone's bought ...
    ... lucky person is."

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 38-42

    "Well, that's incredible" ...
    ... deal in money.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 43-48

    Experiences are what ...
    ... line went dead.

    

    

    

    

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• “The Telephone Call” Symbols

  • 

    The Lottery

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-4: “This is Universal Lotteries," / they said. "You've won the top prize, / the Ultra-Super Global Special.”
    • Lines 27-37: “"I haven’t bought a lottery ticket / for years and years. And what did you say / the company’s called?" They laughed again. / "Not to worry about a ticket. / We're Universal. We operate / A retrospective Chances Module. / Nearly everyone's bought a ticket / in some lottery or another, / once at least. We buy up the files, / feed the names into our computer, / and see who the lucky person is."”
    • Lines 42-47: “"We don't deal in money. / Experiences are what we deal in. / You've had a great experience, right? / Exciting? Something you’ll remember? / That's your prize. So congratulations / from all of us at Universal.”

• “The Telephone Call” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Irony

    

    

    

    

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    Where irony appears in the poem:

    • Lines 11-12: “I said "I just… I can't believe it!" / They said "That’s what they all say.”
    • Lines 41-48: “"Oh," they said, "there's no cheque." / "But the money?" "We don't deal in money. / Experiences are what we deal in. / You've had a great experience, right? / Exciting? Something you’ll remember? / That's your prize. So congratulations / from all of us at Universal. / Have a nice day!"”

  • Rhetorical Question

    

    

    

    

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    Where rhetorical question appears in the poem:

    • Lines 44-45: “You've had a great experience, right? / Exciting? Something you’ll remember?”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 2: “Universal Lotteries”
    • Line 5: “a million pounds”
    • Line 6: “a million”
    • Line 8: “millionaire”
    • Line 10: “tell us”
    • Line 13: “Go on,” “tell us”
    • Line 17: “Go on”
    • Line 19: “My,” “my”
    • Line 20: “cry”
    • Line 24: “a million pounds”
    • Line 25: “cry”
    • Line 26: “I said”
    • Line 27: “lottery ticket”
    • Line 28: “years,” “years”
    • Line 30: “a ticket”
    • Line 31: “Universal”
    • Line 33: “a ticket”
    • Line 34: “lottery”
    • Line 38: “I said”
    • Line 40: “cheque”
    • Line 41: “cheque”
    • Line 42: “money,” “money”
    • Line 43: “Experiences”
    • Line 44: “experience”
    • Line 47: “Universal”

  • Dialogue

    

    

    

    

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    Where dialogue appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-48

  • Cliché

    

    

    

    

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    Where cliché appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “Are you sitting down?”
    • Line 11: “I can't believe it!”
    • Line 12: “That’s what they all say.”
    • Line 23: “It isn't every day”
    • Line 25: “have a little cry”
    • Line 48: “Have a nice day!”

• “The Telephone Call” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Universal Lotteries
  • The Ultra-Super Global Special
  • Pounds
  • Flying saucer
  • Retrospective
  • Chances Module
  • Cheque
  • The line
  • (Location in poem: Line 2: “This is Universal Lotteries”; Line 31: “We're Universal.”; Lines 46-47: “So congratulations / from all of us at Universal.”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Telephone Call”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “The Telephone Call” Speaker

• “The Telephone Call” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “The Telephone Call”

• More “The Telephone Call” Resources

  • External Resources

    • An Interview with the Poet — Listen to an interview with Fleur Adcock about her life and career.

    • A Profile of the Poet — Read about Adcock at the Postcolonial Studies blog at Emory University.

    • A Retrospective — Read a retrospective on Adcock's career, published in The Guardian upon the release of her Collected Poems (2000).

    • The Poet's Life and Work — A brief biography of Adcock from the Poetry Foundation.

    • More Adcock Resources — A biography, bibliography, and critical perspective on the poet, via the British Council Literature.

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Fleur Adcock

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