The primary theme of “Telephone Conversation” is racism. In the poem, a Black man tries to confirm a housing arrangement with a landlady over the phone. He wishes to inform the landlady that he is Black, and a ridiculous conversation ensues regarding how dark his skin color is.

Racism, the poem thus makes clear, is inherently reductive and dehumanizing. As such, the speaker refuses to answer the landlady’s question directly, instead offering a series of clever replies that reveal the landlady’s question to be not just offensive but also utterly illogical.

Wole Soyinka’s ‘Telephone Conversation’ is a lyric poem written in free verse. The poem is a dialogue involving a black man and a white woman. The two are indulged in a phone call throughout the poem.

The poem “Telephone Conversation” by Wole Soyinka introduces readers to the characters of the white landlady and the black African man. The African man is also the speaker in the poem.

Nigerian poet Wole Soyinka uses irony to depict the absurdity of racism in his poem, “Telephone Conversation. the use of words to convey a meaning that is the opposite of its literal meaning: the irony of her reply, “How nice!” when I said I had to work all weekend.

“Structural irony refers to an implication of alternate or reversed meaning that pervades a work. A major technique for sustaining structural irony is the use of a naïve protagonist or unreliable narrator who continually interprets events and intentions in ways that the author signals are mistaken” [1].

Structural Irony Examples: When a narrator purposefully deceives the audience. When the protagonist is unable to realize just how much danger they are in.

The irony of the story is that the taximan’s beloved daughter went to cheat him and went to become a prostitute. That broke the taximan’s heart as he had loved her and did not think that this kind of irony would happen to him.

In dramatic irony, the reader has more knowledge about what will happen or is happening than the characters. Dramatic irony can stimulate strong emotions in a reader because the reader knows what awaits a character and may see the character act against his or her own well-being.