A Call
A Call - meaning Summary
Everyday Work, Mortal Summons
The poem turns a simple phone call into a meditation on age, work, and death. While waiting, the speaker notices an older man weeding carefully in the garden and is struck by the quiet concentration of the scene. The hall clocks and the unattended phone deepen the pause. The ending links ordinary domestic life with mortality, then closes with an unexpected note of affection and human closeness.
Read Complete Analyses“Hold on,” she said, “I’ll just run out and get him. The weather here’s so good, he took the chance To do a bit of weeding.” So I saw him Down on his hands and knees beside the leek rig, Touching, inspecting, separating one Stalk from the other, gently pulling up Everything not tapered, frail and leafless, Pleased to feel each little weed-root break, But rueful also . . . Then found myself listening to The amplified grave ticking of hall clocks Where the phone lay unattended in a calm Of mirror glass and sunstruck pendulums . . . And found myself then thinking: if it were nowadays, This is how Death would summon Everyman. Next thing he spoke and I nearly said I loved him.
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