Discussion questions
Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll: Poems of the Decade
Group 1
‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll
Your task today is to look at lines 1-6, 23, and 31-36. How does the use of repetition
and other literary techniques help convey ideas/themes/mood?
Please discuss, make notes, annotate your copy of the poem and be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
Group 2
‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll
Your task today is to look at lines 7-30. Look at how the poetic voice responds to the
robot. How is the character of the poetic voice developed?
Please discuss, make notes, annotate your copy of the poem and be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
Group 3
‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll
Your task today is to look at lines 7-30. Look at the use of first person pronouns ‘I’,
‘me’, possessive determiner ‘my’ and negative lexis ‘none’, ‘nothing’ and ‘no’.
What is the effect of the poet’s use of these words?
Please discuss, make notes, annotate your copy of the poem and be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
Group 4
‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll
Your task today is to look at the presentation of the robot (lines 5-42). What does he
say and do? How is he referred to? Comment on the presentation of the robot and
how it helps to convey ideas/themes.
Please discuss, make notes, annotate your copy of the poem and be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
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Discussion questions
Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll: Poems of the Decade
Group 5
‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll
Your task today is to look at lines 37-49. How do the use of repetition and other
literary/poetic techniques help convey ideas/themes/mood?
Please discuss, make notes, annotate your copy of the poem and be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
Group 6
‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll
Your task today is to consider the number of and length of stanzas, line lengths and
choice of line end words. What are the effects of the poet’s choices?
Please discuss, make notes, annotate your copy of the poem and be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
Group 7
‘Please Hold’ by Ciaran O’Driscoll
Your task today is to look at the last stanza of the poem. How does the poet’s choice
of words and sentence structures help create ideas/themes/mood? Please also
consider the use of the present tense throughout the poem.
Please discuss, make notes, annotate your copy of the poem and be prepared to
share your ideas with the class.
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Discussion questions
Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll: Poems of the Decade
Possible outcomes:
Group 1
Initially the poem can be interpreted as positive – the idea of the future and the robot are
suggestive of sci-fi genre in which humans are relieved of tedious chores. The poetic voice is
given ‘countless options’. In line 6 this changes with the word ‘none’ (emphasised by its position
at the start of the line) and ‘needs’ (linked by alliteration). ‘None’ – exclusive lexis which makes
the countless options pointless. The wife’s words (line 1) are repeated in line 23 and 31.
Poetic voice ‘And I’m talking to a robot’ is repeated in lines 4 and 34. Lines 5 and 6 are varied in
lines 35 and 36 with the negative occurring first ‘no options’ before ‘in the guise of countless
alternatives.’ The poetic voice has become more cynical. The use of the same words draws
attention to the changes. The repetition throughout the poem creates a cyclical effect – the
sense the poetic voice has of going round in circles, getting nowhere.
Group 2
The poetic voice’s frustration is shown through the verbs of attribution ‘shout’ (line 19) and
‘scream’ (line 30). The escalation of frustration is shown by this stronger verb in line 30. The
poet uses repetition of ‘wonderful’ and ‘great’, ‘my needs’, ‘nothing’, ‘money’ with the
repetition modified by ‘my’ for emphasis to show poetic voice’s increasing sense of lack of
control over something he perceives to be ‘his’. Lines 20-21: the poetic voice sarcastically uses
the robot’s words to mock creating irony. This emphasises how inappropriate the robot’s words
are. The poetic voice’s asides (lines 15 and 19) emphasise his lack of control.
Group 3
The frequent use of first person pronouns and possessive determiner ‘my’ would usually create a
sense of assertiveness on the part of the poetic voice, an emphasis on the speaker and
ownership, especially as the dynamic verbs are in the active voice ‘I give’, ‘I’m paying’ but here
that effect is undermined by the repeated negatives. The negatives ‘none’, ‘nothing’ and ‘no’
are all exclusive allowing for no exceptions. The repetition of first person lexis emphasises the
poetic voice’s lack of control making the assertion of individuality ironic.
Group 4
The robot is personified ‘he’ (presumably because it is a male voice). The robot speaks, (‘says’
line 7), has intelligence (‘don’t understand’ line 24), can do things (‘is giving me’ line 35 and ‘he
transfers’ line 41). He seems to have more agency and control than the poetic voice. Use of the
first person plural pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’ links him to the company as if he were real. The robot
uses imperatives ‘please say’ (line 25) and modals of permission ‘you can say’ (line 26) dictating
what the poetic voice may say. The initial conversation following the ‘Initiation Response
Feedback’ model places the robot in the dominant position. The robot asks for the telephone
number, the poetic voice responds, the robot gives feedback ‘wonderful’. The robot’s feedback
seems patronising and insincere.
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Discussion questions
Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll: Poems of the Decade
Group 5
Lines 37–49 mimic the part of an automated call in which a caller must hang on listening to
muzak or messages designed to encourage the caller to wait. The repetition suggests that the
poetic voice is waiting a long time – he is asked to hold, listens to muzak, is asked to hold,
listens to muzak, is asked to hold, listens to muzak. At this point his patience runs out –
indicated by the use of taboo language ‘fucking’. The poetic voice’s cynicism shows in his
translation of the robot’s messages to mean the opposite (‘important’ – ‘not important’). He is
not important, he is powerless. The word ‘looting’ in line 49 jars. It seems out of keeping with
the rest of the poem and so indicates a complete disillusionment. Looting symbolizes an act of
rebellion against a system which prevents progress through legitimate channels, thus leaving
only the illegitimate available. We expect the idea of looting to provoke censure but the robot
has a limited script and cannot respond appropriately, creating a wonderful sense of irony at the
end of the first stanza.
Group 6
There are two unequal length stanzas. Stanza 1 is the phone call and stanza 2 is a comment. The
line lengths are short, creating a sense of a staccato conversation. There is a limited number of
line end words with several words repeated – ‘says’, ‘needs’, ‘number’, ‘robot’, ‘account’,
‘phone’, ‘options’, ‘future’. This mimics the repetitive nature of the phone call, the feeling of
getting nowhere (going round in circles). It is limited like the robot’s vocabulary. It also suggests
a lack of creativity/lack of spontaneity that might characterise a dehumanised future, a future
in which technology is dominant.
Group 7
A sense of stasis is created – the sense that there is no progress. The only movement seems to be
to grow old and die (metaphor – ‘cold’). The effect is created through a variety of techniques
used together - the internal rhyme of ‘hold’, ‘old’, ‘cold’, ‘told’, the repetition of ‘grow’,
anaphoric repetition of ‘please’, the rhythm of repeated stressed sounds in line 50 which sounds
unnatural and slows down the poem, the caesura in line 52. The poet drops ‘please’ after
‘Please do what you’re told’ in line 51 reducing the short sentences to commands ‘Grow old.
Grow cold.’ suggesting that the politeness is for form’s sake. The use of ‘This is the future’
repeated from earlier in the poem has a chilling effect in the last line. The final image is of a
future in which people have no control and no options. The use of the present tense throughout
the poem creates a sense of the phone call occurring as you read and also of the merging of the
present and the future into the stasis of the final paragraph.
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Please Hold by Ciaran O’Driscoll: Poems of the Decade
Teaching ideas
1. Discuss the title of the poem. What does this suggest the poem will be about?
2. Start by introducing the context of the poem by asking what experience the students
have of automated phone calls. Maybe give a demonstration of one that you have
experienced, choosing options, being asked to hold, listening to music, ‘You are number
5 in the queue’ etc. Give them a couple of minutes to discuss with a partner and then ask
for volunteers to feedback their stories.
3. Explain ‘Eine Kleine Nachtmusik’: this is the title of a piece of music which is frequently
used in automated telephone calls. Play them the opening of the first movement.
4. Ask the students to write down their first impressions of the poem as you read it aloud.
Who is speaking? How does s/he feel? What ideas are conveyed by the poem? You could
give the students mini whiteboards and ask them to each write down three things. These
could then be simultaneously revealed and some responses chosen to explore. Expected
outcomes – the phone call setting, the poetic voice seems angry/frustrated, ideas about
the insignificance of the individual, powerlessness, fears about the future – a sense of
futility.
5. Group tasks. Split the class into seven. Each group will have a different task. Some are
more complex than others providing opportunities for differentiation. Each group
receives a task card. They have ten minutes (or more – however long you think they need)
to discuss in their groups and prepare how they will present their ideas to the class. Say
that every student is to make notes and annotate their copy of the poem and every
student is expected to contribute to the feedback.
6. Each group gives their feedback. Ideas are collated on the board/annotated onto a copy
of the poem on the board. Students all write notes.
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