hi everyone and welcome back to playlist Pages or welcome if you're new here so today we're discussing please hold by kierano Driscoll this is another poem on the Edexcel English literature poetry curriculum and let's dive straight in into the summary and Analysis here now Drisco is an Irish poet whose influences were classical modernists like T.S Eliot and he writes poems blending dark humor and lyrical sentences he expresses his anger as Injustice satirizes social problems and explores many other themes in the poem please hold there is a speaker dealing with an automated voice who is telling him to please hold it's a play on how Society is always making us wait and as we progress there are more and more robotic influences in our life until we cannot really tell the difference between robots the machines and robots like the humans who have become so sunk in the bureaucracy and really need to be constantly efficient that our capitalist Society demands from us he talks about how we leave many familiar values behind and how although we are technologically progressing we may not be progressing in the social and moral and even ethical sense the teams explored our society and culture the passage of time change and I the poem could be compared to a chainsaw versus the pampas grass material history and easy passage the furthest distances I've traveled and from the Journal of a disappointed man the structure is actually one big long stream of Consciousness chunk of text which for the purpose of this video I have split into chunks that are easier to deal with but the structure really represents how for us life has become a constant hassle like a hamster spinning in a wheel where living life on steroids constantly rushing to be more efficient to do more to be productive to to do more in a shorter chunk of time and to do less work but accomplish more and we're trying to live according to these Henry Ford principles of efficiency and production and here in I'll just go criticizes this and says if you're constantly running life like this you don't really get a chance to take a breath to slow down to be in the moment and to really enjoy life and before you know it it's gone and you're on hold as Society moves on away from you and you can never really keep up with the pace likewise we don't really get a chance to pause within this poem and really process what's going going on always feel is anger and frustration from The Narrative narrator's point of view and I'm sure that for many of us this same anger and the same frustration and the stress that we experience when talking to a machine that doesn't really process our demands is really brought back by the poem and by the powerful even humorous allusions to Everyday situations that are sadly becoming more and more common as we move on in life we feel less and less patience towards the things that people would have felt would have felt patience towards in previous years because in the past all these robots all these things they would have been a novelty of course people would have been more patient unaccustomed to this new reality they wouldn't have expected for this robot to instantly understand what they want to instantly provide them with the demands that they have to instantly meet their needs and wishes and desires and now this is exactly what we're expecting from the robot what we feel we deserve is not being given to us that's of course when we start to get angry in the past just having internet is a miracle now having slow internet is a chance to complain and the free verse within the poem is very demonstrative of the chaotic sense that the robot brings to us where we can never really halt or Focus or find a rhythm in life find sure footing as we constantly find ourselves plummeting and washing and running and trying our best to keep up with the space of development and the repetition of please hold within this within the poem and other phrases symbolizes how we're constantly running life on repeat these this constant cycle of actions of calling and waiting and waking up and going to bed and eating and drinking and we never really pause within the cycle to actually take in what we're doing this is the future my wife says we're already there and it's the same as the present your future here she says and I'm talking to a robot on the phone the robot is giving me countless options none of which answer to my needs this is the future and you don't have a choice in other words you have to be here and you are forced to endure the situation this is something his wife repeats throughout this poem and it really shows how even his closest person I mean his wife right the person who should be there supporting him emphasizing with him the person who well until death do us part right we'll be together enjoy and in sorrow this person is instead telling him that he's old-fashioned and they don't have any choice they have to keep up with this future the future that's already here he doesn't have a say in what the robot in what the robot is doing in his life or whether that robot should even be there all he has to do is keep up he's forced to keep up we don't know in what tone she's saying this this phrase but we do know that what she's doing is reinforcing the principle just like every other person in society except for the speaker this is why the theme of alienation and difference is also prominent in this poem because he seems to be the only one who's saying guys this isn't normal that I don't want this to be my future towards the end we really see that the meaning of these words becomes Twisted the adjectives lose any sense that they originally held and even a phrase that could be interpreted as positive or even neutral takes on a darker tone just like the speaker finds his life beginning to to take a turn for the dark the robot is giving me countless options none of which answer to my needs is also a commentary on the materialistic nature of a society as many people feel that we are losing touch with inherent values that should have been there as we embrace the sort of culture of chasing after money and chasing after happiness or even the false notion of Happiness things like uh actual physical wealth and actual physical property rather than values like family and community and this is what's being highlighted here as well that none of this actually caters to his needs so things that were created for the purpose of comfort for the purpose of making life easier for human beings are the very things that make this life harder and are the very very things that highlight just how far we have gone from the values that the speaker feels we should have stayed with the pronouns here I'm talking to a robot on the phone it gives us a very personal feel it makes us feel much more connected to the poem something that the speaker wants to highlight that this is not only his future this is not only his problem that he can't keep up with this robot this is our Collective shared few the shared future or better said shared present as Humanity this is the situation that we have to deal with in our society and it's not something that we can really distance ourselves from whether we like it or not this future is here and a choice has to be made there's a juxtaposition as well between being count between being given countless options and none of which cater to my need between the many and the one again this hyperbole shows just how alienated he feels and that the fact that he has to be polite to this robot or at least try to keep a semblance of politeness also shows the superficiality of the situation and how human beings think that technology has only made our life better and we embrace it completely without really thinking of these daily daily struggles or even the consequences for the future that we are walking into wonderful says the robot when I give him my telephone number and great says the robot when I give him my account number I have a wonderful telephone number and a great account number but I can find nothing to meet my needs on the telephone and into my account which is really in the robot's account goes money my money to pay for nothing so here again money takes on an important role but this time to show that it's not really it's something that the speaker is chasing for it's something that we all were chasing for which is why this robot is here it's also to save the company's money on hiring actual people again the irony of chasing money so creating robots and then robots taking away people's jobs and taking away the money that was promised but the point here is that life and language and the daily things are all losing me meaning because empty adjectives are replacing adjectives that were previously important for us and our culture just like Humanity was previously important for Humanity right it makes sense human is important for humans now being replaced with robots so wonderful and great and amazing all of these adjectives used to be said in a positive way for kids in school or for even adults like he did an amazing job he did an excellent job I'm so very proud of you and now here the robot is using it as a meaningless response to anything that the speaker says even if the speaker was yelling at the robot that he's a useless machine the robot would still respond I'm sorry I can't really help you but I have a wonderful plan to help you so all of these adjectives are thrown around until they lose their value just like humans are losing their value it's interesting also to discuss gender Theory here if you're comparing it with another boom in which gender roles play important values uh usually girls are called princesses or dainty or lovely or gentle and boys are called strong and heroes and any range of words that form our gender identity so it could be interesting to compare exactly how that's done how that's done here with how the robots have taken adjectives for themselves and trapped in these binary responses of wonderful or amazing or any amounts of countless options none of which meet my needs any deviation from the script is impossible the speaker has to fit into society he has to take on the role that Society has forced him into it's eerie and Sinister and the constant interpretation of words reinforces the inevitability of the situation and the extent and the extent of which we can't really get out the extent to which we have no choice over this there's a lot of the use of the present tense and listening I'm talking it shows just exactly just how ongoing this is exactly just how current it shows us that this is a loop an endless loop that we're in really right now it's not a situation that we can postpone and there's parenthesis here and which is really the robot's money it's almost as if the robot is really taking on the main role in this narrative it's almost as if whatever the speaker says as a person is secondary to what the robot wants and again it's highlighted to us that it's really the robot's account it's really the robot's money because it's not anything tangible anymore it's not like physical dollars like there used to be in the past that you put in the bank and that you can expect to have back you don't really see this money it's in digital form you see a bunch of screens on your phone that's how you your account balance and they tell you you're outgoing and your ingoing funds but you don't really physically see them unless you really use cash and so what he's highlighting here is that even this the robot has taken for himself even the things that should be his even that very same material property material wealth that he has been chasing for for years has been taken has been commodified by surveillance capitalism his personal data is being used for profit his now is going a step further his actual money is being used for profit but not for the profit of the robot and not for the profit of him but for the profit of the company really but what company nobody really knows he's very unclear on the Stitch situation it's part of the thing that plays into the mystery of the robot that he doesn't really understand because he knows that this is just a soulless machine but if the soulless machine is taking control of his property then who's really in control here if the robot is just the so-called puppet I'm paying a robot for doing nothing this call is free of charge says the mind reading robot yes but I'm paying for it I shout out of my wonderful account into my great telephone bill wonderful sister robot and my wife says this is the future I'm sorry I don't understand says the robot please say yes or no or you can say repeater menu you can say yes no repeat or menu or you can say agent if you'd like to talk to someone real who is just as robotic the irony is even if the speaker manages to escape this maze he will just go into another one because the script is the same for call centers even if he manages to get a human on on the line the human will also just follow a script that was given to him what the speaker is said Rising is that there's not really any room left for creativity or thought that very thing that people think that humans have about robots above artificial intelligence the ability to think is being taken away because the most that the call center will say is I'm sorry you're having this problem we will do our best to fix it where I'm sorry we can't help you with this but we hope you have a good day and the mind reading robot really completes the picture by painting something extremely dangerous something that we're no longer in control of when you realize just how unprotected we are now that we can no longer even think for ourselves and like the robot we're continuing to follow algorithms that others have decided for us the speaker is shouting wonderful and great and getting angry but it doesn't really matter because the robot is a an emotionless machine whereas a person in a call center could eventually lose their patience and respond the robot can only listen and respond for the script so even his anger is futile even his anger is being wasted and the repetition of these words now completely finalizes this loss of any sense or any real meaning or value in them now for us these are also just meaningless repeated words just like they are for the speaker and highlighting that the speaker is actually paying for the phone call even though the robot is saying that it's free also finalizes the deception because this whole thing is a deception just like humanity is deceiving ourselves if we think that this is the way forward is what the speaker is arguing we are being convinced that all of this is cheaper quicker more efficient as per the principles of capitalism but in reality it's just a way for companies to gain more money rather than care about what the consumers thinking about their customer experience this is the future the refrain once again shows that the the economy between the speaker and his wife the wife accepts all of this without question and again going back to gender roles this could be a reference to how perhaps in childhood women are often taught more often often sorry are taught more often to just accept the reality of their situation to just deal with it as it is whereas the husband isn't accepting of it at all and the repetition of all these choices drives home the idea that even if there is seemingly a choice the idea of there being a choice is Just an Illusion because the number of options is limited and you're not the one choosing those options everything has become optimized to the point where humans are indistinguishable from robots so even by escaping this maze you just go straight into another one ice cream agent and then cut off and my wife says this is the future oh we are already there and it's the same as the present your future here she says and I'm talking to a robot on the phone and he's giving me no options and the guys of countless Alternatives we appreciate your patience please hold I in a client and knock music please hold I in the client and not music please hold Aina Klein and music and the robot transfers me to himself your call is important to us he says and my translator says this means your call was not important to them and my wife says this is the future and my translator says please hold means that for all your accomplishments the only way you can now meet your needs is by looting wonderful sister robot he screams agent and he's cut off all it takes is one word and the line the line completely blanks as the robo transfers him this represents the pace that human conversation has been reduced to it also references our attention span really because who's willing to watch a 25 minute video when there's a 15 second video the same thing with conversation the robot doesn't want to hear please transfer me to an agent as soon as he hears the word agent the robot doesn't hear he just transfers the call it's not really his conversation it's not really his problem to deal with and even when he's given a chance to scream agent again it's beyond his control he screams agent and he's cut off even if he wanted to stay on the line he's not given a choice the robot decides for him once again the short Moon of syllabic words really show how Humanity has reduced its communication I mean when you just have to click yes or no you're not exactly talking to another person like you were in the past the guise of countless Alternatives is a dystopian image of people who promised that they would do better that there are alternatives for the future that we have your needs in mind without really carrying through on it I think this could also be a metaphor for the people who are silenced when they want a different option even I mean even his wife has turned away from it I keep coming back to these ideas because that's what the poet is trying to drive through he repeats these ideas throughout the entire poem that his wife is not on his side that there are no options that he's constantly being told to please hold all of these things are constantly being repeated just like the poet wants to drive home to us that our entire life is being run on repeat and now classic music by Mozart is being used as wedding music I mean even like really good music and high culture and things that have historically held value are now just being used as an everyday mundane sort of thing and something that should be calm and really Pleasant like Mozart is now a source of irritation and the use of the expletive of course shows that the speaker has lost patience and there's a use of Peace here and please on repeat it shows the way that the speaker is actually saying these words it's almost as if he's spitting them in Anger he's Furious he really doesn't want to deal with this and and the translator is like his inner inner voice the sarcastic version of the narrator or of the customer voice the translator is saying what's really happening the things that people don't usually say to be polite Looting of course is very exaggerated it's a comical addition but it really shows the breakdown of society that now the only way for his needs to be met is by looting by robbing because society that promised him that anyone who works hard can achieve their dreams is not carrying through looting could also be referring to stealing time so he can only get back his humanity and his ability to choose and freedom of will if they turn back time and they go back to the past where all of this was not his everyday reality not the future that's already here looting also brings the very real world in looting brings to mind the issues of poverty this divide between classes all of these issues that we don't tend to think about on a daily life on our on a day-to-day basis as our life being replaced by other occupations really we appreciate you and your call was not important to us also once again shows that companies no longer really care about their customers because it's not so important in the digital world when you don't see them face to face and you don't rely on them or or on being a part of your local community the use of the swear word here as well it's an expression of taboo language because the speaker wants to assert his freedom of Will and to pretend that he still has any semblance of it by defying social conventions the conventions that the very Society he's in and the Very Society that's breaking down his individuality and character says that he shouldn't say the customer service voice is the voice you have to use when you're not allowed to really show your emotions when you have to be constantly Pleasant and the solution that Society has brought in instead of making life easier and happier is replacing those people with robots who really truly can't show emotions and can get frustrated at the situation the last three lines are a separate stanza because they're very distinct they provide a pause just like he wants us to pause and to really reflect on the situation please hold please grow old please grow cold please do what you're told grow old grow cold this is the future please hold these lines are imperative just like the robot is being is ordering us around and being itself ordered around we as the reader are also told what to do there's a lot of linguistic Specialties here such as the use of punctuation or repetition or rhyme and it really shows how humans have a grasp on language and I think that it's particularly highlighted here to show that our use of language is different from the robots who merely says yes or no or please hold these are your options we have far more variety in our speech and in our imagination and the poet really urges us to use it but in these last lines he does start to become more important than he was previously perhaps he's becoming more mechanical more automated just like the robot representing that potentially if we don't intervene in the future we will fall slave to the machine and the message of please hold changes as well depending on how the speaker says this because we go from please stay on the call in please hold from the robot side into please hold as a message from the speaker that's telling us to pause and enjoy the small things in life and the poem is deliberately funny in some of these moments by referencing the language that the call center is used by satirizing all this it's meant to show us just how absurd the situation actually is when you think about it and the language being in the present tense but also saying that the future is here it's a paradox really you can't say it and it highlights just how strange the whole situation is for the speaker which is why he feels so alienated the progression of hold old code is a warning that life might pass while we wait for it to just be better while listening to other people's orders because of course grow cold grow dead the last lines sound like the speaker is final desperate attempt to reach us and I hope that this flow of explanation has also reached you and that you enjoyed my analysis of it and that this many study guide helped thank you so much for watching and I will see you next week [Music]