Wole Sovinka's tone in "Telephone Conversation" Through a phone discussion with a landlady, the poet expressed his emotions about racism. The poem's tone was sarcastic and lighthearted. It shows that even though Wole Sovinka was living in America, he had feelings about racism that were similar to those in England where he was born. In this poem, Sovinka uses language that is common in twentieth-century poetry. This includes alliteration, assonance, and consonance. These are three different ways of arranging words or sounds that can help readers understand ideas in poems. Alliteration is when words or phrases start with the same letter. For example, in this poem, "cold" and "gold" both start with the letter C. This would be an example of using alliteration. Assonance is when two or more words or phrases sound alike but have different meanings. For example, "shower" and "flash" both mean "to pour out water," but they also sound like "shuffle" and "flicker." Consonance is when two or more words or phrases have the same meaning but use different letters or sound patterns. For example, "grave" and "gorgeous" both mean "beautiful," but they also end with the letters G and R.